Ms Julie Harrison
Biography
Julie joined the Northern Ireland Office as Permanent Secretary in September 2023.
She was previously Permanent Secretary in the Department for Infrastructure.
In 2020 she joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service as a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Justice. She was responsible for a broad range of policy areas including Policing, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Crime, Hate Crime, Paramilitarism and Organised Crime including Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery.
Julie has held a range of roles prior to joining the civil service and has a background in research and analysis, social inclusion, grant making and urban regeneration.
She has previously served as Strategic Advisor to the Strategic Investment Board, Northern Ireland Chair of the National Lottery Community Fund, a Director of the Building Change Trust and co-optee to Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
Permanent Secretary for the Northern Ireland Office
The Permanent Secretary leads the day-to-day running of the department and heads the senior leadership team. She is responsible and accountable to Parliament for the stewardship of the department’s budget and ensuring value for money as the Principal Accounting Officer.
The Permanent Secretary is the Chief Policy Adviser to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the ministerial team.
Along with the departmental leadership team, the Permanent Secretary is responsible for:
- Setting standards within the department
- Ensuring good governance, assurance, and performance and risk management
- Overseeing the delivery of the Department’s Outcomes Delivery Plan
- Assuring the performance of sponsored organisations that are directly funded by the NIO
- Approving the department’s resource accounts and departmental annual report.