Northern Ireland

Questions asked over failure to appoint independent Policing Board members

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley has ordered a rerun of a competition to appoint independent members of the NI Policing Board.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley has ordered a rerun of a competition to appoint independent members of the NI Policing Board. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley has ordered a rerun of a competition to appoint independent members of the NI Policing Board.

The Public Appointments Commissioner has been asked to investigate a decision by the Secretary of State not to appoint independent members of the Policing Board from an approved pool of candidates.

Commissioner Judena Leslie regulates, monitors and reports on the process for making ministerial public appointments in Northern Ireland.

Independent Policing Board members are usually appointed by the justice minister, but since the collapse of Stormont are now under the remit of Sectary of State Karen Bradley.

The Department of Justice launched a recruitment competition for nine independent members of the board in April last year which resulted in a pool of suitable candidates being identified.

In November 2018, following reconstitution of the board, three new independent members were appointed from the approved pool by the Secretary of State.

The new members are Dr Tom Frawley, Doug Garrett and Colm McKenna.

Mr Garrett was CEO of the Blackpool Regeneration Company, and a non-executive Director of Blackpool Hospital Trust.

Dr Frawley has served on a number of boards and government bodies and was the Northern Ireland Ombudsman and Commissioner for Complaints.

Colm McKenna has also served on numerous public bodies including as Chairman of the NI Food Advisory Committee.

They took up their posts in December 2018, with the remaining six independent members due to be replaced on June 30, 2019.

However, the Irish News understands this will not happen and competition for replacement board members will be rerun.

Indications are that the Secretary of State intends to reappoint the existing members for a further nine months to allow a new competition to take place.

It is claimed "the implications of Brexit" require a revised set of criteria, however, the competition to recruit a pool of new candidates was launched in 2018 with the referendum result known since June 2016.

Prospective candidates argue that they have already satisfied the selection panel of their abilities in all the required fields.

A UK Government spokesperson said: "The current members of the Policing Board are in place until 30 June. A further announcement will be made before that time."