Panel Members

There are eight members of the Independent Expert Panel. You can read brief biographies of each of the Panel Members below:

Mrs Lisa Ball

Lisa has over two decades’ experience of adjudication determining complaints of bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination as well as disciplinary matters. In 2008 she was appointed as one of the first independent members of the Armed Forces Service Complaints Panel and since 2009 she has been the independent member of the King’s Counsel Complaints Committee.

Additionally, Lisa has previously served in a wide range of independent and lay roles including the Solicitors Regulations Authority; the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services; a Police Authority; the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors; the PHSO and the NHS.

Ms Monica Daley

Monica Daley is a barrister of 25 years’ standing. She has acted in a judicial capacity since 2006, first as a Fee-Paid Property Judge of the Residential Property Tribunal and also, more recently, as a fee-paid judge for both the Health and Social Care Tribunal and the Special Education and Disability Tribunal dealing with appeals in cases involving sensitive and confidential issues. 

Monica brings her legal knowledge and experience to her current role as a legal assessor for the Fitness to Practise committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council where she is responsible for advising on procedure and the law.

In 2015 she was appointed as one of the first cohorts of independent legal Chairs of the Police Misconduct committee for East England. This role involved making preliminary decisions and chairing cases involving a wide range of allegations of police misconduct.

In 2016, Monica was also appointed as a Legal Assessor for fitness to practice committees of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Mrs Johanna Higgins

Johanna Higgins is currently the Northern Ireland Commissioner for the Criminal Cases Review Commission, a panel member for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, and a panel member for the Civil Legal Services Appeal Panel, Northern Ireland.

Johanna is a barrister of 27 years call and has worked as a senior public prosecutor in Northern Ireland. She has extensive experience of criminal casework, criminal appeals, judicial review, historic cases, adjudication and community care law. She is also an elected member of the Royal Historical Society.

Rt Hon Sir Stephen Irwin

Sir Stephen was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in 2016 and acted as the supervising justice for extradition and national security cases until his retirement in October 2020. He is a member of the Privy Council and continues to sit part-time as a deputy Lord Justice of Appeal.

He is a trustee of the Slynn Foundation, which offers support and training to judges and lawyers in jurisdictions where they may be under pressure, or facing major change. From July 2021 to early 2022, he facilitated discussions which have led to the establishment of a process of alternative dispute resolution for the bereaved. Since July 2021, Stephen has, at the request of the claimants and central defendants, been facilitating discussions to design an alternative dispute resolution procedure for the bereaved, survivors and relatives of the Grenfell fire tragedy.

Stephen was a High Court judge from 2006 to 2016. Between 2013 and 2016 he was Chairman of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) and from 2011 to 2018 he was Chairman of the Judicial Security Committee responsible for judges’ safety. He spent seven years as a tutor on the Judicial College leadership course.

Prior to his judicial career Stephen had extensive experience as a barrister, was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1997, and in 2004 took on the high-profile role of Chairman of the Bar for England and Wales.

Professor Clare McGlynn KC (Hon)

Clare McGlyn is a Professor of Law at Durham University, with particular expertise in criminal law. A qualified solicitor, she was appointed KC (Hon) in 2020 in recognition of the influence of her research on law and policy reform, particularly image-based sexual abuse and extreme pornography.

Clare was a member of Durham University’s Sexual Violence Taskforce, undertakes sexual violence and misconduct investigations within the university and is a member of the University's Discipline Committee. As well as supporting other institutions regarding their sexual misconduct policies, she also has experience of adjudicating claims of bullying and harassment.

Clare has held several leadership roles at Durham including as Deputy Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health, and member of the University's governing body, the University Council.

Miss Dale Simon 

Dale Simon is a qualified barrister (currently not practicing) who had an extensive career with the Crown Prosecution Service where she was the Director for Public Accountability and Inclusion and had corporate responsibility for hate crime and violence against women and girls. She spent three years as Head of the Office for Judicial Complaints handling serious and sensitive judicial investigations and was also a Non-Executive Director at the Parole Board for 6 years where she was a member of the Management Committee and the Chair of the Standards Committee.

Dale currently sits as an independent panel member for public appointments for the Ministry of Justice and as a lay chair of Fitness to Practice Hearings for the Nursing and Midwifery Council. She is also a member of the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.

Dale was an advocate consultant for Phase II of The Young Review with responsibility for liaising with statutory and voluntary organisations, taking forward the recommendations of the Young Review to reduce the disproportionality negative outcomes for young Black Asian and Minority Ethnic and/or Muslim men in the criminal justice system.

In 2013 Dale was awarded a CBE for services to equality and diversity.

Sir Peter Thornton KC

Sir Peter Thornton is a former judge. He was a Senior Circuit Judge between 2007 and 2016 sitting at the Central Criminal Court, hearing cases involving murder, terrorism and serious sexual offences. He also sat as an appellate judge in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and in the High Court on inquest appeals.

Sir Peter was the first person to hold the post of Chief Coroner of England and Wales, between 2012 and 2016. Having chaired five different disciplinary panels, including misconduct panels for academic staff at University College London and fitness to practise appeals for medical students, Peter is at present Chair of the UCL Discipline Review Body.

He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Law School at King’s College London and trains judges and coroners in the UK and abroad. He is Patron of the National Network of Child Death Review Panels

Dr Matthew Vickers

Matthew Vickers was Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman of Ombudsman Services (the UK’s energy and telecoms ombudsman) from 2018 to 2023 and previously served as Chief Executive of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

Matthew is a experienced in investigations, decisions, appeals and judicial reviews in regulated sectors ensuring procedural fairness and transparency for parties and the public.

An accredited mediator, Matthew is a former Trustee of the Scottish Mediation Network and currently chairs the Board of Trustees at Human Rights at Sea, a charity which promotes effective and enforceable legal redress to uphold human rights at sea internationally.

Matthew's previous roles were as British Consul in Spain and before that in commercial leadership roles in retail and fast-moving commercial goods (FMCG).

Matthew holds a doctorate in the history of Victorian and Edwardian Liverpool from the University of Oxford.