Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission
Overview
This independent commission was established in February 2025 to consider how imprisonment and community-based interventions are used in Scotland and ensure that it has a sustainable prison population.
Chair, Martyn Evans, will provide strategic direction and leadership to the commission in its development of recommendations for Ministers in relation to improvements to sentencing and penal policy.
The Chair will be supported by a panel of five commissioners who will provide input on the work of the commission, including its priorities, governance and strategic direction.
It is anticipated that work will be split into modules. The Chair will decide how these should be prioritised and develop a work plan including an update within six months of the commission’s first meeting, with a final report and recommendations to be presented to the Scottish Government before the end of 2025.
Members
- Martyn Evans, Chair
- Catherine Dyer, Chair of Community Justice Scotland
- Cathy Jamieson, former Minister for Justice
- Sheriff David Mackie
- Dr Hannah Graham, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Stirling
- Lynsey Smith, Joint Chair of the Social Work Scotland Justice Standing Committee
Martyn Evans, Chair: biography
Martyn Evans BA (hons) MA (econ) FRSA joined as a board member of the Scottish Police Authority in June 2018 before being appointed Chair from January 2021 to early 2025. He has wide-ranging executive and non-executive experience in the voluntary and public sectors and has chaired successful and influential commissions and enquiries across the UK and Ireland in fields as diverse as welfare reform, library strategy, fairness, legal aid, citizenship and wellbeing.
Prior to this role, he was the first Chair and Independent Trustee of the Alex Ferry Foundation, a new grant making philanthropic charity which aims to improve the lives of people who work or have worked in the UK shipbuilding, engineering and related manufacturing industries, as well as their families and dependents. Martyn was previously Chief Executive of the Carnegie UK Trust for 10 years having been appointed in November 2009. He was Director of the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) from 1998 to 2009 and a visiting Professor of Law at the University of Strathclyde from 1995-2001. Prior to taking up his post with SCC he was Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Advice Scotland for five years and Director of Shelter (Scottish Campaign for Homeless People) from 1987 to 1992.
In 2024, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution and dedication to public service from the Holyrood Scottish Public Service Awards.
Publications
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