UUP councillor gets two-month ban: Mark Ovens broke rules over Stormont special advisor role
A UUP politician has been barred from sitting as a councillor for two months, after breaking rules related to his Stormont role.
Mark Ovens was reportedly a Special Advisor (SpAd) to two previous Ulster Unionist health ministers, Robin Swann and Mike Nesbitt.
He’s now been found to have brought his position as a councillor into disrepute over actions connected to that job.
Elected to Fermanagh and Omagh Council in 2023, a probe has found he repeatedly sat through meetings he should have left due to a conflict of interest with his Stormont role.
That even included one confidential legal briefing that he should not have been present for due to his SpAd status.
Detailing his code of conduct breaches, the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards said Ovens didn’t file a register of his interests until more than two years after he won his council seat. Newly elected councillors are supposed to do so within 28 days.
The commissioner stated that the UUP man regularly declared a conflict of interest at meetings due to his SpAd work, but then didn’t leave the debate as the code of conduct requires.
And there were times he didn’t declare an interest at all, despite the council tackling similar issues to the occasions on which he did.
He didn’t speak or vote on the relevant matters, stated the commissioner, but he shouldn’t have been present at all.
The commissioner did reinforce that other members of the council knew he was a SpAd, and Ovens had admitted the breaches at an early stage of the investigation.
Giving her verdict, the commissioner said she believed there had been “a conscious and ongoing disregard by the councillor of his obligations under the code” and was satisfied that his actions were “likely to diminish the trust and confidence the public places in his position”.
As such, she concluded, he had brought his position as councillor into disrepute.
Although his breaches could have resulted in a three-month ban, the commissioner stated, due to mitigating factors such as Ovens holding his hands up she decided to reduce the penalty.
In the circumstances, she stated, she believed a suspension of two months would be appropriate.