The Ministry of Justice is staying silent on Helen Pitcher’s future as chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission amid calls for her to resign, after she quit the Criminal Cases Review Commission claiming she was ‘scapegoated' over the Andrew Malkinson case.
Pitcher resigned as CCRC chair on Tuesday after receiving a report from an independent panel convened by lord chancellor Shabana Mahmood. Mahmood decided last summer to begin the process for removing Pitcher from her post after a KC-led review found the CCRC failed Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
In an interview with Gazette columnist and legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg for his A Lawyer Writes podcast, Pitcher said she intends to complete the remaining year of her appointment as chair of the JAC.
Lord Falconer, who served as lord chancellor under the Blair administration, declared on social media platform X yesterday that Pitcher should resign as chair of the JAC. Former Labour MP Chris Mullin, whose campaign led to the release of the Birmingham Six, also called for her to go.
JAC commissioners are appointed under schedule 12(1) or the Constitutional Reform Act, by the king on the recommendation of the lord chancellor.
The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
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