The Secretary of State has appointed Eleni Bide and Johanna Higgins for terms of 4 years, commencing on 22 January 2026 until 21 January 2030.
Eleni Bide is currently the Head of Library and Archives for The Goldsmiths’ Company. Within this role, her professional practice includes teaching, writing and media work on the history of goldsmithing. Eleni also sits on the Committee of the Silver Society and edits The Goldsmiths’ Review.
Johanna Higgins is the Northern Ireland Commissioner for the Criminal Cases Review Commission. She is a barrister and Bencher of the Inner Temple, London, also called to the King’s Inns, Dublin and the Bar of Northern Ireland.
She was in private practice as a Barrister in Northern Ireland between 1994 and 2000. Following this, she was a Lawyer with the Law Centre NI and later a Senior Public Prosecutor. She sat on the board of the Historic Buildings Committee in Northern Ireland. In 2020 Johanna was given a 4-year appointment by the House of Commons as a member of the newly founded Independent Expert Panel. She was elected as a member of the Royal Historical Society in 2018 and is completing a project for Bloomsbury Cultural Histories.
The Secretary of State has reappointed Dr Nigel Fletcher, Sir David Natzler and Jonathan Scherbel-Ball to the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives (ACNRA) for a term of 4 years, commencing on 17 January 2026 until 16 January 2030.
These appointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments.