WIREDGOV

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill today announced the appointment of four new legal members and five new lay members to the Parole Board for Scotland.

The new legal members are:

Aileen Devanny - Mrs Devanny has been a solicitor since 1980 and has worked in private practice and also local authority level. She was a law lecturer and was formerly an external adviser to the Open University Validation Panel. She is an accredited community mediator and holds a number of ministerial appointments including legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland for which she receives a daily fee of £430. Mrs Devanny is also the Chairperson of the Scottish Charity Appeals Panel and Chairperson of the Rent Assessment Panel and receives daily fees of £325 and £305 respectively for undertaking this work.

Charles Milne - A native of Dundee, Mr Milne attended Kirkton High school and graduated from Dundee University with a degree in law. He was employed as a social worker by Dundee council before embarking on a legal apprenticeship in Inverness. Mr Milne was a partner in a prominent Fife legal firm for 17 years until retiring in July 2007. He has previously been a children's panel member, social security tribunals chairperson, council member of the Scottish Law Agents Society and chair of Cupar Community council. He is currently chair of the Cupar youth cafe project. Mr Milne holds no other Ministerial appointments.

David O'Donnell - Mr O'Donnell was admitted as a solicitor in 1981 and worked in private practice until taking up a full time academic appointment in 1993. In 2004 he was appointed Professor of Legal Ethics and Professional Practice at the Robert Gordon University. Mr O'Donnell is currently the Chief Executive of the Legal Defence Union. He is also a legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland and receives a daily fee of £430 for this work.

Moira Ramage - Mrs Ramage qualified as a solicitor in 1986 and worked in the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service as a Procurator Fiscal for approximately 20 years. She was seconded in 2001 to work with Lord Bonomy in his reform of the High Court. From 2002-2004 Mrs Ramage was seconded to the Scottish Executive as Bill team leader for the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) (Amendment) Act 2004. She was District Procurator Fiscal for Greenock from April 2004 to June 2007. Mrs Ramage was appointed as legal assessor to the General Medical Council in July 2007. Mrs Ramage holds no other Ministerial appointments.

The new lay members are:

Francis B rown - Mr Brown was brought up in Edinburgh and educated at George Heriots School. Following a career as aircrew in the Royal Air Force he trained in Edinburgh as a social worker working initially in Moray, subsequently holding directorate level posts in Social Services in both England and Wales. Retired from local government he works as a consultant in Health and Social Care and undertakes inspection work for the Commission for Social Care Inspection and Audit Commission. Mr Brown is also a member of the Moray Childrens Panel.

George Keith Carruthers - Mr Carruthers was appointed to Strathclyde Police in 1977 and progressed through the ranks serving in a variety of specialist roles and divisions of the Force. As a senior manager he served within Operations Events Planning at Force Headquarters before taking over responsibility for Force Communications at a time when the Force introduced centralised call handling and communications. In 2006 he was appointed as Deputy Divisional Commander for the South Lanarkshire Division of the Force where he served up until his retirement from the service in October 2007. Mr Carruthers holds no other Ministerial appointments.

Andrew Jones - Educated at St. Andrews University where he took a degree in Mediaeval History, Andrew Jones joined the advertising and marketing industry and specialised in media planning and buying. He began his career at J. Walter Thomson and went on to hold a range of senior board positions in Scottish agencies before setting up his own venture. His clients included many of Scotland's top brands, such as ScottishPower, as well as the Scottish Executive and NHS Health Scotland. He is a member of the Marketing Society and also a member of the Children's Panels and the Dunbartonshire Economic Forum. Mr Jones holds no other Ministerial appointments.

Jo Knox - A former Depute Chief Inspector for the Social Work Services Inspectorate, Mrs Knox has extensive experience in social work as a practitioner and manager particularly in the field of criminal justice social work. She was a lecturer on the MSc in Advanced Social Work Studies in Criminal Justice at Edinburgh University before joining the Inspectorate. Recently she has worked as a consultant on a number of criminal justice social work projects including a period as acting chief officer for the Fife and Forth Valley Community Justice Authority. She is a member of the Scottish Accreditation Panel for Offender Programmes and receives a daily fee of £450 for this work.

David Stewart - A career civil servant with the Scottish Office then Scottish Government, Mr Stewart retired in 2007. His wide experience in the public service included head of Children's Panel policy branch, secretary of Inquiry into Child Care policies in Fife, head of Industrial Relations branch and head of branch dealing with local government finance. Mr Stewart's most recent post before retiral was head of Judicial Appointments and Finance Di`vision in the Courts Directorate of the Executive. Mr Stewart holds no other Ministerial appointments.

These appointments will run from September 3, 2007 and end on July 31, 2014. Mr Carruthers will take up appointment from November 5, 2007 and his term will also end on July 31, 2014.

The posts are part-time and attract daily fees of £185 for lay members and £289 for legal members for a time commitment of 8-12 days per month.

The Parole Board is a key component of the criminal justice system in Scotland. It is responsible for putting into effect the requirements of the law in relation to early release on licence, recall to prison and, as appropriate, re-release of long term (offenders sentenced to imprisonment for four years or more), extended sentence and life sentence prisoners.

These Ministerial public appointments were made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland's Code of Practice.

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees' political activity (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.

Within the last five years, Charles Milne has acted as a political agent for an Independent candidate in local government elections and has also canvassed for the Labour party prior to the 2005 general election. Francis Brown stood as a Conservative candidate at the 2007 local government elections. Within the last five years the other appointed new members have not been involved in any political activity.