New commissioners at the miscarriage of justice watchdog include a former director of the human rights group Liberty but lack experience in criminal appeals. Martha Spurrier, also a barrister at Doughty Street, will become one of six new commissioners at the Criminal Cases Review Commission – bios below.
The role of commissioners at the watchdog has been significantly undermined in recent years and the new appointments attempt to meet some of those criticisms made in, for example, the Westminster commission on miscarriages of justice. At the end of 2024/25, there were nine commissioners (an average full-time equivalent of 1.80). There were 10 in 2023/ 24 (FTE of 2.26). It requires the support of three commissioners for a case to be referred.
Until 2012, CCRC commissioners were salaried and received holiday and sick pay, plus pension. Since 2017, commissioners have been fee-paid with no holiday, no sick pay and no pension. Commissioners’ terms of appointment were reduced from five to three years. The time commitment, as well as the remuneration, was also significantly reduced. The level of Commissioner resource fell from 8.8 full time equivalent posts in 2014 to 1.8 at the end of 2024 to 2025 (when there were nine commissioners- compared to 2.26 in 2023/4 (10 commissioners).
It has also been argued that the new generation of commissioners appointed on the new post 2017 terms do not have the ‘same gravitas’ ( to quote a former CCRC case manager) as earlier commissioners and lack experience fighting injustice and, in particular, of criminal appeals – see here. The whole point of the original CCRC as established in 1997 was that its independence resided in the role of the 11 commissioners. These changes (including the creation of a new management board involving just three commissioners) represented a ‘completely different way’ from that originally envisaged under the Criminal Appeals Act 1995 (to quote the Westminster Commission on miscarriages of Justice) where commissioners had ‘a central, not a peripheral, role’.
Matt Foot, director of APPEAL said he was ‘not convinced at all. I’m not convinced that the criteria Chris Mullin set out for the CCRC back in the 1990s of staff with a track record of challenging the official version of events has been made out here. If it hasn’t, yet again they have failed to fulfil the promise of what was anticipated for the CCRC.’
2 ex-prosecutors 2 human rights lawyers, 1 doctor & one dual-qualified barrister / doctor experienced in medical negligence. Would have been nice to see one or two crimina defence solicitors &/or barristers as well. https://t.co/ChfLQBqEgR
— Matthew Scott (@Barristerblog) May 2, 2026
Biographies
- Joelle Black is a practising barrister in Northern Ireland with specialist experience in independent decision making in domestic and international criminal justice. She has an extensive background in criminal law from both her tenure as prosecutor at various levels within the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland, and her current private practice wherein she specialises in judicial review in a criminal context.
- Maxine Cole is a Solicitor-Advocate with an LLM in Criminal Justice and over 20 years practising criminal law. A former Senior Crown Prosecutor and Police Lawyer, she serves as a Tribunal Member of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and sits as a Deputy Chairman/Fee paid Tribunal Judge and Chair of a Fitness to Practice Panel.
- Jared Ficklin is a Manchester based barrister with a background mainly in immigration and asylum law. He currently sits in the First tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and the Employment Tribunal. He was previously a lecturer at the University of Liverpool Law Clinic.
- Andrew Hoyle is dual qualified as a registered doctor and a practising barrister, called to the bar in 2006, specialising in medical law, clinical negligence and professional regulatory law. He is an Assistant Director in Fitness to Practise at the General Medical Council where he leads the statutory decision makers who determine, at the end of the GMC’s investigation, whether a case closes or goes forward to a fitness to practise tribunal.
- James Lucas is a registered medical practitioner and previously practised as an expert witness in the criminal justice system. He has held roles across academia, the public and private sectors, and currently sits as a medical member in the tribunals arena.
- Martha Spurrier is a barrister and policy expert specialising in human rights at Doughty Street Chambers. From 2016 – 2024 Martha was the Director of Liberty, the UK’s leading human rights advocacy organisation. She is a Visiting Professor of Law at Goldsmiths University, a Trustee of the Museum of Homelessness and an Editorial Board Member of the European Human Rights Law Review.
