Ciaran McQuillan and Diane Nixon have been appointed as legal commissioners, while Deepak Anand and Dr Kate Geraghty have been appointed as psychology commissioners.

Mr McQuillan qualified as a solicitor in 1994 and worked in private practice for 12 years, specialising in personal injury litigation and criminal law. He joined the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in 2006, where he is now an assistant director and head of the serious crime unit.

Ms Nixon is a senior lecturer and director of education at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS) at Queen’s University Belfast. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1997 and to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2008. She previously had a full-time professional legal practice focused on criminal and regulatory matters.

As an independent body, the Parole Commissioners’ role is to make decisions on the release or otherwise of those serving extended or indeterminate sentences, and in relation to the revocation of licences and recall to prison in cases where an offender is subject to post custody supervision.

Richard Pengelly CB, permanent secretary in the Department of Justice, said: “These new appointments will add to the collective wealth of knowledge and experience of the Parole Commissioners and I want to wish them well in their new roles.”

There are now 37 serving commissioners in total.