Board Members
There are ten Board members, three judicial and two legal members (a Judge, a Sheriff Principal, a Sheriff, an Advocate and a Solicitor) and five lay members including the lay Chairing Member. The Board currently has two vacancies - one lay member and one legal (Advocate) member.
The Chairing Member receives an annual salary of £17,500. Four of the lay members and the two legal members receive a fee of £290 per day. The three judicial members do not receive any fees for work undertaken. All Board Members are eligible to claim for expenses incurred on Board business.
Prior to the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008 which came into force in June 2009, Board Members were appointed for three years. The Act provides for appointments to be for four years, Appointments can be renewed up to a maximum of 8 years.
The Board currently has two vacancies – one lay member and one legal (Advocate) member.
Sir Muir Russell, KCB FRSE (lay Chairing Member)
Sir Muir was Principal of the University of Glasgow from 2003 to 2009. Prior to his appointment at the University of Glasgow he was Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Executive. He was born in 1949 and was educated at The High School of Glasgow and Glasgow University, where he took a first class honours degree in Natural Philosophy. He is a Trustee of the Glasgow School of Art, a Member of the Board of the Moredun Research Institute, and the Chairman of the Dunedin Concert Trust. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000 and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Edinburgh. His interests include music, food, wine and occasional golf.
Sir Muir was appointed in October 2008 for three years.
Ms Elspeth MacArthur (lay member)
Elspeth MacArthur's background is in human resources. She was Director of Human Resources at the University of Edinburgh until 2007. Ms MacArthur is also a member of the Board of Management at the John Wheatley College, Glasgow and a Director of the Scottish Community Development Centre. She is also a lay member of the Employment Tribunal (Scotland).
Ms MacArthur was appointed in July 2007 for three years.
Sandy Mowat CA (lay member)
Sandy Mowat's background is in business as a Chartered Accountant. He was senior and managing partner of Alexander Sloan, Chartered Accountants until he retired in 2007. He now practices on his own account and holds a number of non-executive directorships and charity trustee appointments. In April 2008 Mr Mowat was appointed to the Investigation and Enforcement Committee of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and in April 2009 was appointed as Secretary and Treasurer of The Baird Trust.
Mr Mowat was appointed in January 2008 for three years.
Professor Andrew Coyle CMG (lay member)
Andrew Coyle is Professor of Prison Studies at King's college, University of London. Between 1997 and 2005 he was founding Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies King's College. He is a prisons adviser to several United Nations bodies and to the Council of Europe. He is a member of the Foreign Secretary's Expert Panel against Torture and of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council. He worked for 25 years at a senior level in the prison services of the United Kingdom. While in the Scottish Prison Service he was Governor of Greenock, Peterhead and Shotts Prisons. Between 1991 and 1997 he was Governor of Brixton Prison in London. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 2003 for his contribution to international penal reform. He is a Fellow of King's College London.
Professor Coyle was appointed in January 2009 for three years.
Sheriff Principal James A Taylor (judicial member)
James Taylor was admitted as a solicitor in 1977 and as a solicitor advocate in 1993. He was a solicitor in private practice, first in Aberdeen and then in Glasgow. Appointed Sheriff of Lothian and Borders at Edinburgh in 1998, he transferred to Glasgow and Strathkelvin in 1999 where he was designated Commercial Sheriff. In 2005 he was appointed the Sheriff Principal of the Sheriffdom of Glasgow and Strathkelvin. Other appointments include Law Society Representative on the Court of Session Commercial Court Users Committee (1993-1998) and member of the Advisory Committee to the Scottish Law Commission in relation to the review of the law on Interest on Debt and Damages. Sheriff Principal Taylor was a member of the Project Board of the Scottish Civil Courts Review which reported in September 2009.
Sheriff Principal Taylor was appointed in July 2010 for four years.
Sheriff Kenneth Ross (judicial member)
Sheriff Ross was appointed a Sheriff in 1997, serving at Linlithgow until 2000 and since then at Dumfries. He is a graduate of Edinburgh University and qualified as a solicitor in 1973. From 1975 until 1997 he was a partner in the firm of Gillespie, Gifford & Brown, Solicitors, Dumfries. He served on the Council of the Law Society of Scotland from 1987 until 1996, convening the Complaints and Guarantee Fund Committees. He was President of the Law Society of Scotland in 1994/5. He sat as a Temporary Sheriff between 1987 and 1997 and has been a member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board since 2004.
Sheriff Ross was appointed to the Board in October 2008 for three years.
Martin McAllister (legal member)
Martin McAllister is a partner with Taylor and Henderson Solicitors based in Saltcoats, Ayrshire. He is a former President of The Law Society of Scotland and has convened several of its Committees including Legal Aid, Professional Practice and Professional Conduct. Mr McAllister is currently a part time tutor at Glasgow Graduate School of Law and a part time Convenor of The Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland.
Mr McAllister was appointed in September 2008 for three years.