Health and Social Services Trusts (Hansard, 17 October 1994)

§ Ms Rachel Squire
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what criteria are used in making appointments to the boards of Northern Ireland health and social services trusts; and whether a list of suitable appointees exists.

§ Mr. Ancram
Non-executive directors of health and social services trusts, including chairmen, are appointed to act in a personal rather than a representative capacity. Although there are no specific qualifications, those appointed are likely to have some or all of the following attributes:

to have interest and concern for health and social services;

to possess a specialist skill or knowledge;

to have experience of the voluntary sector, preferably including operational matters;

to live or work in the area to be served by the trust;

to bring a sense of independence and objectivity to the deliberations of the trust;

to have an understanding of management structure and performance;

to be willing to give the necessary time commitment to the post—a minimum of up to 1.5 days a months for non-executive directors and up to 2.5 days a week for chairman.

In addition, the Department seeks to achieve equality of representation in terms of gender and community background and encourage more young people to participate.
There is a central databased containing background details of all those who have expressed interested in public appointments, while Baroness Denton holds receptions for those expressing an interest in public appointments for the first time.

§ Ms Rachel Squire
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how potential appointees to Northern Ireland health and social services trusts may indicate to those responsible for making such appointments their willingness to become board members.

§ Mr. Ancram
It is open to any member of the public to make it known that he or she is interested in being considered for apointment to an HSS trust. Anyone so interested should write to the Department of Health and Social Services or directly to the HSS trust in question. Local community organisations are also encouraged to nominate.

§ Ms. Rachel Squire
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will consider creating a register of interests of the board members of Northern Ireland health and social services trusts.

§ Mr. Ancram
In line with developments in the rest of the United Kingdom my noble Friend Baroness Denton has decided that HPSS bodies must establish and maintain a publicly available register of interests for chairmen and board members. Guidance will be published shortly in the form of codes of practice on conduct and accountability which will require significant interests to be published in the organisation's annual report.

§ Ms. Rachel Squire
To ask the Secretary of State for Norther Ireland if he will list the name of each board member of the Northern Ireland health and social services trust with(a) the occupation of non-executive directors, (b) the levels of the remuneration paid to non-executive directors and (c) the date of appointment of each director and the length of term of office in each case.
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§ Mr. Ancram
The information requested in respect of the 13 HSS trusts in Northern Ireland has been placed in the Library.