Appointment of new non-judicial members of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales
The Lord Chancellor in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice announced the appointments of Alpa Parmar (from 6 April) and Beverley Thompson-Brown (from 15 June) for the period of 3 years.
We are pleased to announce that Alpa Parmar and Beverley Thompson-Brown have been appointed by the Lord Chancellor in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice as non-judicial members of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales for a period of 3 years.
Alpa Parmar is a Socio-Legal Scholar of Criminal Justice at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford who specialises in the intersections of race and criminal justice. She has conducted a range of empirical research projects and published on minority ethnic groups and their experiences of the criminal justice process. Alpa was a member of the advisory group for the Restorative Justice Council’s project on the experiences of BAME groups and she served as an academic expert on the Lammy Review. She holds a doctorate from Cambridge University and was previously British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Kings College, London.
Beverley Thompson-Brown has spent over 30 years working in the criminal justice sector initially as a probation officer in London. She was Director for Race, Prisons and Resettlement Services at NACRO for 10 years and is currently an Independent consultant having recently worked on a Lammy-related project for HMPPS. She works across the UK, Australia, USA & Canada on Equality, Diversity & Inclusion strategies. Prior to this, she was a Senior Civil Servant at HMPS and was awarded an OBE for services to Race Equality in 2000. Furthermore, she has been the Chief Executive of Northampton Probation Service.
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales was set up by part four of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to promote greater transparency and consistency in sentencing, whilst maintaining the independence of the judiciary.
The appointments process have been conducted in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments Code of Practice on Ministerial public appointments to public bodies.
Alpa and Beverley have declared no political activity or conflict of interest.