Professor David Ormerod appointed Law Commissioner
01 April 2010
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw announced today the appointment of Professor David Ormerod as a Law Commissioner for a period of five years.
With effct from the 1st September Professor Ormerod will succeed Professor Jeremy Horder whose term as Commissioner ends on 31 August 2010.
Jack Straw said:
‘I am extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Ormerod as Law Commissioner. I am certain that with Professor Ormerod’s considerable expertise he will be of enormous benefit to the Law Commission and will be an outstanding Commissioner.’
Notes to editors:
- Professor David Ormerod is Professor of Criminal Justice at the School of Law Queen Mary University of London. Professor Ormerod is a practising barrister and Bencher at Middle Temple, lecturer to the Judicial Studies Board, consultant advisor for the new bench book for judges of specimen directions, author of the leading criminal law text book Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law and co-editor of Blackstone's Criminal Practice. He is also consultant editor of Halsbury's Laws of England on Criminal Evidence and Procedure.
- The Law Commission is an advisory non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice and established by the Law Commissions Act 1965. It exists to keep the law of England and Wales under review and to recommend reform where needed. The Law Commission’s recommendations are designed to make the law as fair, modern, simple and cost effective as possible.
- The Law Commission consists of five Commissioners, one of whom is the Chairman. Commissioners must be either holders of judicial office, barristers or solicitors or teachers of law in a University.
- Each Commissioner is responsible for a specialist area of law. Professor Ormerod will be responsible for leading the Commission’s work on criminal law, evidence and procedure.
- Professor Ormerod will succeed Professor Jeremy Horder whose term ends on 31 August 2010.
- Professor Ormerod’s appointment will run from 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2015. The salary for the post is £123,460.
- Appointments to the office of Law Commissioner are made in accordance with the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (the OCPA Code). Further information on the OCPA Code can be found on the OCPA Website.
- All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity (if any declared) to be made public.
- Under the OCPA Code holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest. Candidates are required to declare any political activity in so far as it is already in the public domain during the past five years. With respect to the above criteria Professor Ormerod has declared that he has not undertaken any political activity in the past five years.
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