Theresa Villiers: “in the meantime, the Parades Commission remains the legally constituted body responsible for determining these matters…”

In the continued absence of “locally owned arrangements”, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, has appointed a new chair, Anne Henderson, and 4 new members to the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland.  They will replace the current commission members, most of whom were appointed in 2010 by the then NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, and will take up their posts on 1 January 2014 .  BBC report here.

From the NIO press release

[NI Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers] I very much hope that the Haass talks will lead to a locally agreed means of adjudicating contentious parades in the future. But in the meantime, the Parades Commission remains the legally constituted body responsible for determining these matters and the new chair and members appointed today will have important work to carry out in the months ahead.

And the brief biographies of the new Commission members

Appointee biographies: Anne Henderson

Anne is currently a non executive director of the SS Nomadic Trading Company. She was Vice Chair of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive from 2004 to 2012 during which time she also spent a short period as acting Chair. She is a chartered accountant and has worked for KPMG, Time Warner Inc and BDO Stoy Hayward. She has previously held positions on the Board of the International Fund for Ireland; the Enterprise Equity Northern Ireland Ltd and Enterprise Equity Ireland Ltd. She is a member of the audit committee of Queen’s University.

Sarah Havlin

Sarah is a solicitor by profession and is currently the Certification Officer of Northern Ireland, a quasi-judicial and regulatory role in the field of industrial relations. She has also held a number of other positions in public office, judicial decision-making and formal arbitration proceedings, including Legal Chair of the Exceptional Circumstances Body; Legal Chair of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) Independent Appeals Panel and DARD Animal Valuation Panel; Board Member and Legal Member of the Public Transport Licensing Appeal Panel; Chair of the Agricultural Wages Board; Legal Member of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority and Legal Member of the Health and Social Care Board Independent Complaints and Serious Adverse Incident Panel. Sarah also served as an Assistant Local Government Boundaries Commissioner in 2008 and as assistant to the District Electoral Areas Commissioner during his recent review.

Colin Kennedy

Colin is Chief Executive of the Mary Peters Trust. Prior to taking up his current position he was Chief Executive of Lenken Healthcare (Ireland). He also spent 14 years in the finance industry. He is currently a member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Northern Ireland; a member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (Fitness to Practice) and the Northern Ireland representative on the NHS Review Body. He served as Chairman of the General Dental Council Complaints Panel from 2006 to 2009.

Frances McCartney

Frances is a Judge (part-time) of the First Tier Tribunal, Social Security Tribunal for UK. She is a partner in a Glasgow law firm and specialises in human rights claims, environmental planning and public law. She is also a senior tutor at the University of Glasgow and a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde. She has held a wide range of appointments that include: Board member of Friends of the Earth Scotland; Civil Legal Aid Committee, Law Society of Scotland; and Trustee of the Scottish Human Rights Trust. She currently is a member of the Midwifery Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, a member of the Legal Governance Group of the Scottish Environmental LINK and a Board member of the Environmental Law Centre Scotland.

Glyn Roberts

Glyn is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA). He was previously Head of Parliamentary Affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses from 2001 to 2008 and Producer of the Week In/Week Out radio programme on Belfast City Beat from 1996 to 2005. He has held a wide range of appointments that include: member of OFCOM Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; Vice Chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Business Trust; Board member of Oxfam Ireland; Governing Board member of South Eastern Regional College; Board member of the National Skills Academy for Retail; Chairman of the Northern Ireland Government Affairs Group; member of Council of the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association; Council member of the Belfast Chamber of Trade and member of the Institute of Directors Economic Strategy Committee. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and a member of the National Union of Journalists.

Only one of the new appointees has declared any recent political activity

Glyn Roberts is a member of the Alliance Party and was Chairman from 2012-2013. He no longer holds any elected position within the party.

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