Dame Vera, a former solicitor general and victims’ commissioner, criticised the watchdog’s handling of the Andrew Malkinson case, where it failed to refer his conviction despite evidence pointing to a miscarriage of justice. Mr Malkinson spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, but two applications to the CCRC were dismissed on cost-benefit grounds.

Dame Vera accused the CCRC of being “negative” in its approach and said it had failed to learn from its mistakes. “They don’t communicate with applicants, are reluctant to challenge the Court of Appeal, look for reasons not to refer rather than to refer and are quite often incompetent,” she said.

She also expressed misgivings about the leadership of chief executive Karen Kneller following her recent appearance before the Commons Justice Committee.

“I didn’t find her impressive,” said Dame Vera. “I was really quite concerned about, first of all, the kind of fairly sketchy way in which she even allowed that they got it wrong in Malkinson, and these assertions that she was sorry that people only judged them by the mistakes, and they all took them very seriously, but actually they were otherwise doing a very good job.

“My fear is that the attitude in the case of Malkinson and others, points to there being an attitude that’s not positive, that’s not mission-driven, that is not go-getter in other cases. So, are they getting it done properly?”

Dame Vera questioned the commission’s current remote-working model, calling for an end to its policy of allowing employees to work from home permanently. “They need to be bold, they need to be mission-driven,” she said.

“It is in my mind that this policy of ‘remote first’ must change. Obviously there will be people who have just had a baby who cannot do it but I completely agree that [you need to come into the office] for esprit de corps, team spirit,” she added.

The CCRC is now assessing an application from Lucy Letby, the former nurse who murdered seven babies.