Northern Crisis: Members of the independent panel
A Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords and former MP for Montgomeryshire in Wales. He is a practising barrister and deputy High Court judge, called to the Bar in 1970 and made QC in 1984.
Just hours before the attacks on September 11, 2001, he was appointed by the government as the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. His spent almost 10 years in the post. He has been the independent reviewer of national security arrangements in Northern Ireland since 2007.
Rosalie Flanagan:
A former high-ranking civil servant in the devolved administration at Stormont. The Queen’s University graduate worked at HM Treasury in London before joining the Northern Ireland Office’s statistics branch in 1978.
Under direct rule, she worked for almost 20 years in the North’s Department of Finance and Personnel.
After the Good Friday Agreement, she became involved in preparations for devolution and moved to the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister on its establishment in late 1999. She retired from the civil service in 2013.
Stephen Shaw QC:
The experienced barrister has been a QC in the North since December 2001. A law graduate from Queen’s University, he was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1980. He was called to the Bar of Ireland across the border in 1998.
During his career he has concentrated on commercial, chancery, and public law work, incorporating strategic advice as well as litigation, arbitration and mediation.
