Mr Paul McFadden has today (3 February 2020) been nominated by the Northern Ireland Assembly to serve as Acting Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman.

Paul has served as Deputy Ombudsman for Northern Ireland since July 2016. At that time he was also appointed the Deputy Commissioner for Local Government Standards, and the Judicial Appointments Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.

He joined NIPSO from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) where he was a member of the Senior Management Team for 7 years. He established and headed up the Complaints Standards Authority, implementing a streamlined and improved complaints handling framework across Scotland’s public bodies.

Paul previously helped establish Scotland’s independent Police Complaints Commission in 2007 and the U.K. Inspectorate of Borders and Immigration. Previously, he held a range of positions as a policy adviser for the Scottish Government.

In 2013 he was appointed by Scottish Government Ministers as a member of the Scottish Administrative Justice and Tribunals Advisory Committee, which provided external scrutiny of the administrative justice system in Scotland.