News

It is the intention of the Commissioner to review the Code of Practice in order to bring it up to date and ensure it is suitable and applicable for Northern Ireland and the devolved administration.

In the meantime, the Commissioner has approved several amendments to the current Code of Practice in anticipation of a new Code being drawn up.

In order to ensure that the code amendments do not pose any difficulties for competitions currently running, and to give departments time to update their systems, the amendments will not be enforced until 1 May 2007. However any competition, notified to OCPA NI, with sift meetings held after 1 May 2007, will be expected to be compliant with the amended Code.

A new leaflet has been published in replacement of the ‘Complaints Leaflet’ and the ‘Probity and Conflicts of Interest – A Guide for Candidates’ booklet. Both of these are now obsolete.

Copies of the new leaflet are available from the OCPA NI office.  The leaflet will be included in the information packs issued to potential candidates.

Access to publication entitled ‘Complaints and Conflicts of Interest: Information Guidance’

The Commissioner issued a press release in relation to the new website launch

The Commissioner issued a press release in response to the PAC Report issued today.  

The Commissioner was a guest speaker at Newtownards Rotary Club.  

Today, the Commissioner welcomed to Belfast, Janet Gaymer and Karen Carlton, Commissioners for England and Wales, and Scotland respectively to a meeting of officials from all three Commissioners’ offices and from public appointments teams in all four countries.  These meetings are held twice a year and give everyone an opportunity to share good practice.  Mrs Huston was also pleased to introduce Eileen Mullan, Corporate Governance Project Leader, Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, who gave a presentation to the group on the ‘Get on Board’ course currently being piloted by the Institute.

Today the Commissioner spoke at the Women Into Politics International Conference which was held at Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn.

The conference theme was "New Perspectives".

Today, the Commissioner attended a joint conference of the Chairpersons’ Forum and the Chief Executives’ Forum, where she spoke on “Improving Public Sector Governance".