The province has a new Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Kerry Hatfield was appointed by Speaker Derek Bennett and took over the position effective December 5.

Hatfield is the former Director of Corporate Legal Services with NL Health Services, and has a background in regulatory compliance in privacy, security, data governance and information management.

Hatfield replaces Jackie Lake Kavanaugh, who held the position on an interim basis, but resigned on November 1, leaving the position vacant for more than a month.

In early December the opposition parties raised questions around the transparency of the selection process.