🧹 “New Broom Has a Lot of Cleaning-Up to Do”: Dame Vera Baird KC Appointed Interim Chair of the CCRC
The appointment of Dame Vera Baird KC as interim chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) marks a pivotal moment for the beleaguered miscarriage of justice watchdog, which has faced months of turmoil following its mishandling of the Andrew Malkinson case.
Baird’s appointment, effective from 9 June 2025 to December 2026, comes after a prolonged leadership vacuum following the resignation of Helen Pitcher in January.
Pitcher’s departure was prompted by a scathing independent review by Chris Henley KC, which exposed the CCRC’s repeated failures in Malkinson’s case—including internal documents showing the Commission contemplated rejecting his application a third time in 2022, despite compelling DNA evidence.
Andrew Malkinson spent 17 years wrongfully imprisoned for a rape he did not commit. His exoneration in 2023 was achieved not through the CCRC’s efforts, but through DNA testing commissioned by his legal team. The Henley report concluded that the CCRC could have referred his case as early as 2009, sparing him a decade of wrongful incarceration.
Pitcher’s resignation was followed by the departure of chief executive Karen Kneller, who faced criticism for misleading Parliament and overseeing a remote-working culture that left MPs questioning who was actually running the organisation.
During a bruising Commons Justice Committee session, Kneller admitted that senior staff were present in the office “maybe one or two days every couple of months,” prompting committee chair Andy Slaughter to declare there was “a hole at the heart” of the CCRC.
The problems at the CCRC, however, run deeper than personnel. Structural issues—political interference, chronic underfunding, and a restrictive statutory test requiring a “real possibility” of success in appeal—have eroded the Commission’s effectiveness.
According to criminologist Dr Steve Heaton, only 16 cases have been overturned due to the CCRC’s own investigative efforts in the past eight years, with referral numbers inflated by group cases like the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Dame Vera Baird, a former Solicitor General and Victims’ Commissioner, has been tasked with restoring public confidence and conducting a full review of the CCRC’s governance, leadership, and investigative capacity. Her track record suggests she is unafraid of institutional reform. As she stated upon appointment:
“It is vital the public can have confidence in an organisation whose constitutional importance is so central to a fair and just system. I look forward to working alongside the many hardworking and dedicated members of staff to restore that confidence.”
The stakes are high. The CCRC was created as a safety net for the justice system. If it fails, so does the promise of redress for the wrongfully convicted.
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