Heather Blackwood

Heather was born in Inverness and moved to Edinburgh to study law.  She has been a lawyer for 40 years, initially as a court practitioner, then specialising in Licensing law.  In 1993, she became a tribunal judge with the Social Security Appeal tribunal (now the First tier tribunal Social Entitlement Chamber). 

In 2005 she was appointed as a legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland (MHTS) and she continues to work part time as a Convener of Mental Health Tribunals.  During her time with MHTS, Heather has been an in house convener at Hamilton HQ and for 10 years she had responsibility for tribunal members’ training. 

She served on the Parole Board for Scotland from 2008 and became vice chairman in 2011.

Heather and her husband moved to Dunbar from Paisley in 2015.  Her interests include dog walking, gardening and drawing and painting.   She is keen to take up wild swimming.