We are pleased to announce that Charles Banner KC has been appointed as interim Chair of JNCC. Charles will take up his post on 21 June 2023 when Professor Colin Galbraith steps down as Chair.
The appointment of interim Chair is made by the Secretary of State for the Environment and will last for six months, while Defra completes an open competition for a longer-term successor to Professor Colin Galbraith. The role of Chair will be advertised in the coming months on gov.uk.
Charles Banner KC has been an Independent Member of JNCC since 2017 and Deputy Chair since 2021. He was appointed as Chair of the JNCC Audit and Risk Committee (ARAC) in February 2021.
Charles is a barrister at Keating Chambers. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2004 and to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2010. He practices across both jurisdictions and internationally, specialising in environment & planning law, commercial dispute resolution and public & regulatory law. He is regularly recognised by the legal press as one of the leading barristers in his fields of practice, and he has been the recipient of multiple legal industry awards. He sits judicially on a part-time basis as a Justice of the Astana International Finance Centre Court in Kazakhstan and is an independent member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Global Standards and Regulation Board. He was previously a Trustee and Council Member of the UK Environmental Law Association (2016 to 2020) and the Independent UK Member of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s Management Board (2017 to 2020).
Professor Colin Galbraith FRSE, the outgoing Chair of JNCC said: "I have enjoyed my time as Chair of JNCC and have helped to raise the profile of the organisation over recent years whilst highlighting the need for action to tackle the twin emergencies of nature loss and climate change impacts. I am delighted that Charlie Banner KC will take over as interim Chair and I am sure that he will effectively lead the organisation to implement the new JNCC Strategy that was launched recently. I wish him every success in his new role."
On hearing of his appointment Charles Banner KC said: "I am delighted and honoured to be stepping up as interim Chair of JNCC, pending the appointment of a permanent Chair to fill Professor Colin Galbraith’s huge footsteps. Whilst this is an interim role, the urgent imperative of nature recovery means that every day counts. I am very excited about working with JNCC’s inspirational CEO, Dr Gemma Harper OBE, to build on the momentum recently provided by the launch earlier this month of JNCC’s new Strategy, Together For Nature, itself following on from the publication at the end of last year of the UK Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies’ Joint Statement, Nature Recovery for Our Survival, Prosperity and Wellbeing. This will be my final role at JNCC before my term of office expires and I am determined to make it a sprint finish!"
For more information on the appointment, visit the gov.uk website.