Alastair James

Alastair James is a civil service professional with 26 years’ experience working across Whitehall and Belfast. He holds a BA (Hons) in History from Trinity College Dublin, postgraduate qualifications in law and legal practice from the College of Law, London, and a postgraduate diploma in Public Administration from Ulster University. Alastair was Private Secretary to several UK Government Ministers as well as spending a large part of his career in policy development roles and on primary and secondary legislation, with a particular focus on local government, equality, and social security. Over the last 10 years, he’s developed extensive experience in Brexit-related work, working on the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol and particularly the Northern Ireland dimension of trade and customs. That has included roles in both the Northern Ireland Office and the Department for the Economy, where he worked on the practical policy challenges and opportunities arising from Northern Ireland’s unique position. He was also the partnership lead for InterTradeIreland within DfE and worked extensively with the Irish Government on the Shared Island Fund. He is now head of the Market Access unit at InvestNI, where, amongst other things, he has responsibility for the promotion of Dual Market Access across domestic and international markets.