Ofcom Appoints First Group of Members of Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland

Ofcom today announced the appointment of the first group of members to its Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland following an initial round of interviews. Ofcom will be advertising again in the near future to complete the Committee's line-up.

As set out in Section 20 of the Communications Act 2003, the Committee has been established to provide advice to Ofcom (and to other committees established by Ofcom) about the interests and opinions of people living in Northern Ireland on all communications matters.

The Committee, which will meet quarterly in various parts of Northern Ireland, will report directly to the Ofcom Board and will publish its own annual report. The Ofcom Content Board and Consumer Panel Members for Northern Ireland (Rosemary Kelly and Kevin McLaughlin respectively) will also attend meetings of the Committee.

Similar committees are being established for Scotland, Wales and England.

The members of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland are as follows:

Brian Collins, 53, is a Barrister and Lecturer in Law at the University of Ulster's Magee Campus. He is a panel member of the Fair Employment Tribunal and a former member of the Northern Ireland Advisory Committee on Telecoms, the Consumers Forum on Communications, and Deputy Chair of the General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland. He lives in Londonderry/Derry and is married with three children.

Dr David Elliott, 42, is the Regional Manager for Amey Business Services, managing the provision of broadband internet services for libraries throughout Northern Ireland. He holds a Doctorate in Atomic Physics from Queen's University and is a Chartered Physicist and a Member of the Institute of Physics. A former BT Business Manager for Education in Northern Ireland, he sat on the Basic Skills Committee and chaired their Targets and Measures Task Force. He lives in East Belfast and is married with two children.

Professor Wallace Ewart, 65, is a former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ulster, Dean of Business and Management, and Director of Informatics. He is an expert in the areas of Communication and Information Technology, with particular experience in the education, training and library sectors. His board appointments have included the Training and Employment Agency and the NI Growth Challenge, and he currently provides consultancy support to educational bodies in the UK, Ireland and Asia. He lives in Jordanstown and is married with 2 children.

Professor Gerard Parr, 42, holds the full Chair in Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, and is Co-ordinator of the Internet Technologies Research Group in the Faculty of Engineering. He is a co-founder and Executive Director of Causeway Data Communications Ltd. He has been widely published in international journals, has extensive experience of government and industry sponsored research, and was a Visiting Scientist at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute in Los Angeles. A member of the Communications Panel of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council College, he lives in Portstewart and is married with three children.

Glyn Roberts, 31, is the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Officer for the Federation of Small Businesses, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Government Affairs Group and a Producer with local radio station, CityBeat. He is also a member of both the Institute of Public Relations and the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, and a Council Member of the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke Association. He lives in East Belfast.

Ofcom will be making further appointments to the Committee and will again seek to encourage women applicants. It will also again be seeking applicants from ethnic minority groups in Northern Ireland in order to ensure that the interests of society as a whole are reflected in the membership of the Committee.

For the first year, the Committee will be chaired by Denis Wolinski, Ofcom Director, Northern Ireland.

Denis Wolinski said:

"The creation of the Advisory Committee means that Northern Ireland will have its say on a range of broadcasting, telecoms and wireless communications matters as well as the opportunity to shape regulatory policies.

"The first group of Members reflects many aspects of Northern Irish life and has experience and expertise across the range of responsibilities which fall within Ofcom's remit. However, we must widen the range, and we want to attract more applications including, as a matter of priority, from women."

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Ofcom is the independent regulator for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.

Our duties include:

The promotion of choice, quality and value in electronic communications services, where appropriate by encouraging competition between the providers of those services
Ensuring the most efficient use of the radiocommunications spectrum - the airwaves used for the transmission of all non-military wireless communications services
Ensuring a wide range of electronic communications services, including broadband, are available across the UK
Ensuring a wide range of TV and radio programmes of high quality and wide appeal
Maintaining plurality in the media by ensuring a sufficiently broad range of ownership
The protection of audiences against offensive or harmful material, unfairness or the infringement of privacy on TV and radio

For further details please visit www.ofcom.org.uk.

Contact

Paula Canning, Ofcom, Northern Ireland
Paula.Canning@ofcom.org.uk
(+44) (0) 28 90 24 87 33

Ofcom Media Office
mediaoffice@ofcom.org.uk
(+44) (0)20 7981 3033

Ofcom Appoints First Group of Members of Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland

Further information

Help

Keep up-to-date