Infected Blood Compensation Body Parole Board membership
The Parole Board is an independent statutory body that exercises its role by convening panels of Parole Board members to make a detailed assessment of a parole-eligible prisoner’s risk to the public and their suitability for release. Parole Board members are public appointees, appointed by the Secretary of State. These members are either judicial (serving or retired judges), specialist (with psychologist or psychiatric qualifications), or independent (with significant experience of the criminal justice system).
	The Root and Branch Review of the Parole System set out the Government’s intention to increase the number of independent Parole Board members with law enforcement experience, such as former police officers and for these members to sit on panels for ‘top-tier’ offenders. This is intended to bring a different perspective on offending and offenders from those with first-hand experience of assessing risk to the public, adding to the collective knowledge and experience of the Board.
	To ensure that law enforcement experience is embedded within the Parole Board, the Act requires the Board to include among its members those with law enforcement experience: those with experience in the prevention, detection, and investigation of offences.
	The Act also gives the Secretary of State the power, through the Parole Board Rules, to prescribe that particular classes of cases be dealt with by members of a particular description. This power will be used, in the first instance, to require any panel considering a top tier case to include at least one member with law enforcement experience. Knowing that those parole decisions are being made by those with different insight into offenders’ behaviour will help to strengthen public confidence in the Parole Board.