Justice Minister, Naomi Long

Mr John O’Neill and Mr Matthew Corkey have been re-appointed as Legal Commissioners with Dr Christine Kennedy and Dr Jeremy Kenney-Herbert re-appointed as Psychiatry/Psychology Commissioner.

Justice minister Naomi Long expressed her gratitude to the commissioners for their continued commitment and dedication to this important role. She said: “The parole commissioners are an independent body of experienced people who make decisions on the release and recall of all life sentence and public protection sentence prisoners in Northern Ireland. They also make decisions on the recall and further release of determinate custodial sentenced prisoners who have been sentenced to 12 months or more.

“These roles are critical in providing independent decisions in the process of deciding whether offenders eligible for parole are safe to release back into the community. Public protection is always paramount and painstaking risk assessment is the key to making a robust decision.”