Sir FREDERICK CRAWFORD (Chairman) was Vice-Chancellor of Aston University from 1980-1996. Prior to that he spent 20 years at Stanford University, California as a researcher and Professor. He has been a member of the Fulbright Commission. He is a member of the British-North American Committee and the Franco-British Council, a past Vice-President of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee and a past Vice-Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals. He has been High Sheriff of the West Midlands and is now a Deputy Lieutenant. He is an Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple. He is a past-Master of the Worshipful Company of Engineers. His past and present non-executive director appointments include Legal and General, Rexam, PowerGen and the Higher Education Quality Council. In 1992 the Institute of Management presented a special award to him for university management. He was knighted in the 1986 New Years Honours.

BARRY CAPON retired in 1996 as Chief Executive of Norfolk County Council - a post he had held since 1973. He was Clerk to the Norfolk Police Authority for over 20 years and has been Clerk to the Norfolk Magistrates Court Committee and Secretary to the Norfolk Probation Committee - giving a wide understanding of the judicial system. He is currently assessor for the Local Government Commission for England, Director of Waveney Housing Association, and consultant to a firm of Norwich solicitors. He is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk and was awarded the CBE in 1992.

LAURENCE ELKS graduated from Cambridge in 1970. He then worked as a teacher in Nigeria for Voluntary Service Overseas, as a community worker in Hackney and as a welfare rights worker for the Child Poverty Action Group. He qualified as a solicitor in 1980 and became a partner of Nabarro Nathanson where he worked as a corporate lawyer on take-overs, mergers and stock exchange flotations. Recently he has concentrated on Competition Law and European Community Law. Laurence Elks is actively involved in social and environmental issues in his inner city neighbourhood.

TONY FOSTER has a wide knowledge of industrial manufacturing processes, commercial activity, health and safety and quality management. He has a thorough working knowledge of financial and management accounting practices. As Chief Executive of ICI Chlorochemicals he was responsible for a multi-million pound, world wide business with over 2,500 employees. Prior to that, he was the General Manager of ICI's General Chemical Business for five years. During that time he had responsibility for implementing and explaining ICI's high profile and controversial programme for the replacement of CFCs. Mr Foster originally trained as a chemist and has a great deal of experience in handling and analysing complex issues.

JILL GORT has a long-standing interest in the criminal law and justice. After qualifying as a barrister in 1977 she spent a decade working at all levels of courts and tribunals mostly practising in criminal law. Much of this time was spent working as a defence lawyer. During 1987-88 she was counsel to a Commission in Washington, USA, investigating an alleged abuse of human rights. From the early 1990s she has chaired a Value Added Tax tribunal and worked as an Immigration Adjudicator specialising in political asylum cases. The latter experience has given wide insight into legal systems in other countries and how the failure of justice results in personal and political problems.

FIONA KING a solicitor, worked in private practice for almost a decade, specialising in criminal defence and legal aid work. She then worked for four years in the County Prosecuting Solicitors' Departments in Kent and Sussex. From 1986 to 1996 Fiona King worked for the Crown Prosecution Service, handling casework as well as managing area offices; she also dealt with staff recruitment and equal opportunities. As head of policy from 1990 to 1993, her portfolio included the rights of audience campaign, working on the reforms contained in the Criminal Justice Act 1991, and improving the arrangements for disclosure. In her most recent post, as Assistant Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, she oversaw a wide range of criminal justice issues requiring close liaison with police, defence solicitors, NACRO, ethnic minority groups and the prison service. From 1992 to 1995 she was Vice-Chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors' Association and a council member for the London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association.

JOHN KNOX a Chartered Accountant, is a consultant to the litigation support division of Pannell Kerr Forster. He was the Deputy Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) from October 1990 to May 1996, responsible for overseeing the operations of the 85 lawyers and financial investigators employed by the office. His areas of expertise include investigating complex cases and the direction of detailed investigations, and liaison with barristers and police. Prior to the SFO he was Head of the Industrial and Financial Appraisal Division at the Department of Trade and Industry from 1979 to 1987.

DAVID KYLE a barrister for over 20 years, was until recently, the Chief Crown Prosecutor of the Central Casework Area of the Crown Prosecution Service. In this post he had a significant responsibility to make decisions on some of the most serious and sensitive cases of recent years in an objective, balanced and analytical way. His experience brings to the Commission an essential understanding of the way cases are constructed and brought before the courts. At the CPS, David Kyle had day-to-day responsibility for some 200 staff including lawyers, accountants, caseworkers and administrators.

JOHN LECKEY qualified as a solicitor and is currently HM Coroner for Greater Belfast. He holds a Master of Laws degree in Human Rights and Emergency Law. As Coroner he is accustomed to acting independently and in an inquisitorial capacity. He has considerable experience in the investigation of sudden, unexpected and violent deaths. A number of inquests he has held have concerned deaths occurring in controversial circumstances with a background of allegations of miscarriages of justice and criticism of the adequacy of the police investigation. He has a comprehensive knowledge of forensic medicine, forensic science and the Northern Ireland criminal justice system. He is a member of a number of learned societies concerned with medico-legal matters.

Prof LEONARD LEIGH was Convenor of the Law Department at the London School of Economics where he has lectured on criminal justice since 1964. He has made detailed research into key areas such as commercial fraud, civil liberties and human rights. Professor Leigh was called to the Alberta Bar in 1959 and to the English Bar in 1993. He has practised in both jurisdictions. He was a member of the Canadian Government's Securities Regulation Task Force during the 1970s. He is one of the two UK council members of the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation and has been Visiting Professor at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.

JAMES MACKEITH is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, a medical practitioner who treats the mentally ill and is concerned with the interface between the law and psychiatry. He works at the Maudsley Bethlem NHS Trust in London. He has had experience for over 20 years of advising the courts as an expert witness. He has worked in prisons and secure psychiatric units. For some years he has been interested in assessing cases where a defendant's confession is disputed in Court.

KARAMJIT SINGH is also a Civil Service Commissioner and Vice-Chairman of the Ethnic Minorities Advisory Committee of the Judicial Studies Board. His experience of criminal justice issues has included membership of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), the Parole Board and West Midlands Police Authority. At the PCA he supervised complex and sensitive investigations, including alleged miscarriages of justice. He has also worked in academia, the voluntary sector, the Commission for Racial Equality, and local government in addition to membership of the Industrial Tribunals Panel and a committee auditing Immigration Department complaints processes. In 1990 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to study the relationship between urban institutions and their local communities in the United States.

BADEN SKITT was, until recently, Assistant Commissioner to the Metropolitan Police. He was responsible for issues including Race and Community Relations, Strategic Crime Prevention programmes, and the Drugs Strategy for London. A former Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, he has in-depth knowledge of the UK Police Service. Outside the police service Mr Skitt has been involved in a wide range of education and community related programmes. He is a Director of the Educational Broadcasting Services Trust and was a Member of the recent National Inquiry into Young Homelessness.

EDWARD WEISS a Chartered Accountant, was for many years Finance Director of Chubb security and also responsible for certain Pacific Rim companies. In his last year at Chubb he was Director of Strategic Development, leaving in 1992 to take on a range of non-executive positions, including Chairman of Loss Reviews at Lloyd's and joining its Corporate Finance Advisory Panel. In addition to being a Commission Member, Edward Weiss is a non-executive director of two companies. Within the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Edward Weiss is on the Business Law Committee and is Chairman of the Pensions and EMU Committees. He is a member of The Hundred Group of Finance Directors. He is a Governor of the National Youth Orchestra.