The Commissioner
Judena Leslie was the most recent Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland. Judena took up the position of Commissioner on 1st September 2015 with her tenure ending at the beginning of May 2021.
The Commissioner is the guardian of the processes used by Northern Ireland Executive Ministers to make public appointments on merit.
Public bodies, and their boards, play an important role in the lives of the people of Northern Ireland. All of us living here benefit from the essential services they provide: in health provision, in education, in policing and justice, in economic and social development matters and right across the spectrum of Government services. The Commissioner’s role as a regulator is to ensure that the best people get appointed to public bodies free of personal and political patronage.
It is important that every citizen who wishes to serve on the Boards of Northern Ireland's public bodies and has skills or experience to contribute is given the opportunity to put her/himself forward for appointment. The Commissioner’s office is committed to ensuring that each Northern Ireland Executive Department has in place excellent processes for attracting and assessing a wide range of candidates; that those processes are fairly and openly applied to every public appointment and that each appointment is truly made on merit.
The Code of Practice for Ministerial Public Appointments is the code that all Northern Ireland Departments must follow in making public appointments. It is designed to provide Ministers with a choice of high quality candidates from a strong and diverse field.
This website provides information on the Commissioner's role and the role of the Commissioner's office. It keeps you up to date with the news on public appointments and alerts you to relevant reports and publications. You will also find results of audits and investigations conducted by the Commissioner's office.
If you have comments or suggestions on the website or on any matter relating to public appointments, please let us have them on info@publicappointmentsni.org. We take your input seriously.