Sir John Laughlin Semple, KCB (born 10 August 1940) is a retired civil servant who was Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service between 1997 and 2000.
[1] Semple joined the Home Civil Service as an Assistant Principal at the Ministry of Aviation in 1961.
He moved to the Northern Ireland Civil Service the next year.
He held the same position at the Northern Ireland Ministry of Community Relations from 1970 to 1972, then served for five years as Assistant Secretary at the Northern Ireland Ministry of Development, before moving to the Department of the Environment.
He was Second Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the United Kingdom's Northern Ireland Office for the year 1998–99, and was Secretary to the Executive Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly the following year.