The Parole Board
The Parole Board for England and Wales is the independent body that protects the public by making risk assessments about prisoners to decide who may safely be released into the community and who must remain in or be returned to custody, with the ultimate aim of protecting the public and successfully reintegrating prisoners into the community. As of March 2007 the Parole Board had 168 members. Most of them work part-time for the Parole Board and part-time in some other profession.
These included:
- 47 Judicial members
- 21 Psychiatrist members
- 8 Psychologist members
- 11 Probation members
- 4 Criminologist members
- 73 Independent members
The Board is supported by a Chief Executive and 100 staff. Each year a recruitment exercise is carried out to appoint new members. Apart from judges and psychiatrists all members are required to interview prisoners. Applicants therefore need to live within reasonable travel distance of the prisons in one of the regional locations.
“The Parole Board joined together with Operation Black Vote and held a seminar aimed at raising awareness in the black and minority ethnic community. It encouraged more applications from that community to become members of the Board.
Their Civic Leadership Programme was a response to the under-representation of the BME community amongst the membership of the Board. The Board has been in contact with OBV since 2005 and work in partnership to increase awareness of their work and help widen the range of their applicants.”
Chairman
Sir David Latham
020 7217 0582
david.latham@paroleboard.gsi.gov.uk
Chief Executive
Linda Lennon CBE
020 7217 0582
linda.lennon@paroleboard.gsi.gov.uk
Deputy Chief Executive & Head of Operations
Miles Dagnall
020 7217 0423
miles.dagnall@paroleboard.gsi.gov.uk
The Parole Board for England and Wales
Grenadier House
99-105 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 2DX
Telephone: 0845 251 2220
Fax: 0845 251 2221
