Appointment to the Board of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has appointed Patricia Kelly as the Legally Qualified Commissioner to the Board of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) from 1 June 2021 for a term of five years.

Appointment to the Board of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland

Ms Kelly has worked as a lawyer, having been called to the NI Bar, and has an LLM in Human Rights Law. She is the Director of a children’s rights organisation, which is a charity and has extensive experience on boards in the voluntary sector and on government funded bodies. She has been appointed to two government led policy review panels and she is currently a serving member on a statutory board, reporting to the Minister and Department of Health. Ms Kelly has declared no political activity in the last five years and holds no other public appointments

Notes to editors: 

1. The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) was established as the regulator of charities operating in Northern Ireland following the enactment of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. The main functions of CCNI are to keep a public register of charities; encourage, facilitate and monitor compliance with charity law; determine charity status; identify and investigate misconduct in charity administration and take remedial or protective action as necessary.
2. The Board of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland comprises a Chief Commissioner, a Deputy Chief Commissioner and five Commissioners. Commissioners, including the Legally Qualified Commissioner, receive £2,352 per annum and additionally they are separately remunerated for service on a decision making committee established by the Commission following the McBride High Court Judgment of May 2019.
3. The appointment has been made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland’s (CPA NI) Code of Practice. 
4. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process.  However, the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland requires the political activity of appointees to be published.
5. For media enquiries please contact the Department for Communities Press Office on 028 9082 3516 or email:
6. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
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