Jim Wells (politician)
| Jim Wells | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety | |
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In office 23 September 2014 – 11 May 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Edwin Poots |
| Succeeded by | Simon Hamilton |
| Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Down |
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Assumed office 25 June 1998 |
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| Preceded by | New Creation |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 April 1957 Lurgan, Northern Ireland |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Democratic Unionist Party |
| Spouse(s) | Grace Wells |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Queen's University, Belfast |
| Website | DUP |
Jim Wells (born 27 April 1957) is a Northern Ireland politician from the Democratic Unionist Party and formerly Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Wells is one of six Assembly members for South Down. He was a councillor on Down District Council from 2001 to 2011.
Wells has a degree in geography and a postgraduate diploma in town and country planning from Queen's University Belfast. He was employed as a manager by the National Trust from 1989, before returning to frontline politics in 1998.
Wells was first elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in October 1982. He opposed the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, particularly for the two years after its inception, and frequently confronted Tom King, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in the course of his public engagements.
He was elected to the new Northern Ireland Assembly as DUP representative for South Down in June 1998, following the Belfast Agreement, signed the previous April. He stood unsuccessfully in general elections in Upper Bann in 1983, and in South Down in 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2015.
From 1 July 2009 until 24 March 2011, Wells was the Chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Health Social Services and Public Health Committee. In the 2010-15 Assembly, he was appointed to the position of Deputy Chairman of the same committee, serving in this capacity until his unexpected appointment Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in September 2014
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