UUP councillor Mark Ovens suspended for two months over undeclared interests

ULSTER Unionist Party councillor Mark Ovens, who represents the Erne West district electoral area on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, has been suspended from his council role for two months following findings of breaches of the local government code of conduct.

The sanction was imposed this week by Northern Ireland’s Local Government Commissioner for Standards, Margaret Kelly, after an adjudication into allegations that the councillor had failed to comply with his obligations to declare and register interests.

In a strongly worded report, the commissioner said she believed there had been a “conscious and ongoing disregard by the councillor of his obligations under the code”.

She concluded that his actions were likely to “diminish the trust and confidence the public places in his position as councillor”, adding that he had brought his position into disrepute.

Mr Ovens, who was elected to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council in the 2023 local government elections, accepted the breaches and the sanction.

The findings centre on his failure to submit his Register of Interests within the required timeframe and his handling of declarations relating to his employment as a special adviser (SpAd) to the Health Minister.

The commissioner found that Mr Ovens did not submit his register until November 2025, more than two years after becoming a councillor.

The report also noted that, although he had declared his special adviser role in relation to certain council matters, he had not subsequently withdrawn from meetings.

“There were other occasions where the councillor did not declare an interest on similar issues, and one occasion where he remained for a confidential legal briefing which conflicted with his role,” the report stated.

The commissioner said that, without mitigating circumstances, she would have imposed a three-month suspension rather than the two-month sanction.

In mitigation, the report acknowledged that Mr Ovens had co-operated with the adjudication process and accepted the breaches. It also noted that he had not spoken or voted on the relevant matters and that his appointment as a special adviser was openly known to other council members.

Mr Ovens was appointed as a special adviser to former Health Minister Robin Swann in 2020. Following the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly in February 2024, he began working for Mike Nesbitt, who resigned earlier this year. He continues to work as a special adviser to current Health Minister Robbie Butler.

Responding to the decision, Mr Ovens said he accepted the sanction but maintained that the circumstances surrounding the case were important.

“My appointment as a special adviser was openly known to members of the council,” he said.

“I regularly declared that interest, and the commissioner found that I never spoke or voted on any of the relevant matters.”

The commissioner also received allegations relating to criticisms Mr Ovens had made of the council but decided not to take those matters forward for investigation.

The councillor welcomed that decision, saying he had been “wrongly accused of spreading misinformation”.

“In reality all I had been doing was calling on the council to be more transparent with local ratepayers,” he added.

He also raised questions about the complaint that led to the adjudication, saying the process had prompted “serious questions about the appropriateness of, and motivations behind, this complaint”.

Mr Ovens acknowledged that he had submitted his completed Register of Interests outside the required 28-day timeframe.

“One of the other accusations which I never sought to contest was that I submitted my completed register of interests form outside the required 28-day timeframe,” he said.

“That is true, but so too is the fact that more than half of the other members of the council also submitted theirs beyond 28 days, and yet no complaint by the chief executive was ever made about them.”

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council has been approached for comment.