Commission on Scottish Devolution

An independent review of the experience of devolution in Scotland

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Commission members

Note: Although some Commission members are described in terms of offices they hold with named organisations, they serve on the Commission in a personal capacity and not on behalf of those organisations.

Chairman:

Sir Kenneth Calman

Chancellor of the University of Glasgow

Members:

Colin Boyd

Former Lord Advocate, member of the House of Lords (Labour)

Rani Dhir MBE

Executive Director, Drumchapel Housing Co-operative

Professor Sir David Edward

Retired Judge of the European Court

Murray Elder

Member of the House of Lords (Labour)

Audrey Findlay

Former Leader of Aberdeenshire Council, Convener of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Party

Jamie Lindsay

Former Scottish Office Minister, member of the House of Lords (Conservative), Chairman of the Scottish Agricultural College

John Loughton

Chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament

Murdoch MacLennan

Chief Executive, Telegraph Media Group

Shonaig Macpherson

Chair of the National Trust for Scotland and of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry

Iain McMillan

Director, CBI Scotland

James Selkirk

Former Scottish Office Minister, member of the House of Lords (Conservative)

Mona Siddiqui

Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Glasgow

Matt Smith

Scottish Secretary, UNISON

Jim Wallace

Former Deputy First Minister, member of the House of Lords (Liberal Democrat)

Colin Boyd

Colin Boyd

Colin Boyd was born in Falkirk in 1953. He qualified as a solicitor before being called to the Scottish Bar in 1983. He built up a practice in planning and administrative law and served as an Advocate Depute, prosecuting in the High Court, for three years. He became a QC in 1995.

In 1997 he became Solicitor General for Scotland in the UK Government, a post he continued to hold as a member of the Scottish Executive following devolution in 1998. In 2000 he became Lord Advocate. During his time in office he was responsible for the prosecution of the Lockerbie trial and also instigated a radical reform of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (the Scottish prosecution service). He stood down in 2006, reverting to the solicitor's profession and joining Dundas & Wilson in 2007.

In 1997 he contributed to a book, Devolution: the Legal Aspects (St. J. Bates ed.). He was made a Privy Counsellor in 2000.

In 2006 he was made a Life Peer. He sits as a Labour Peer and is a member of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee of the House of Lords.

He is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow.