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Our Remit

 
Who does CJI inspect?
 
Under the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 CJI was originally given the power to inspect nine named organisations. Further additions were later made by Order and as a result of s.46 of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007.
 

A full list of the organisations currently subject to inspection by CJI are shown below.


Key Crimimal Justice organisations
 

Other organisations inspected by CJI
  • The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI);
  • The Northern Ireland Social Security Agency;
  • The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPS);
  • The Compensation Agency;
  • The Youth Justice Agency for Northern Ireland (YJA);
  • Health and Social Services Boards and Trusts;
  • The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS);
  • The Northern Ireland Child Support Agency;
  • The Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI);
  • The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI);
  • Forensic Science Northern Ireland (FSNI);
  • The Department of the Environment (DoE);
  • The Police Ombudsman’s Office for Northern Ireland (OPONI);
  • The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI);
  • The State Pathologist’s Department for Northern Ireland (SPD);
  • The Royal Mail Group (RMG);
 
  • The Northern Ireland Court Service (NICtS);
  • Belfast Harbour Commissioners;
  • The Parole Commissioners (formerly the Life Sentence Review Commissioners);
  • Larne Harbour Ltd;
  • The Legal Services Commission (LSC);
  • Belfast International Airport Ltd (BIA);
 
  • The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB).
 
  • Community Restorative Justice schemes; and
 
  • Probation and bail hostels (Approved Premises).

By law, CJI is not allowed to investigate individual cases but it can, when asked by the Minister for Criminal Justice or the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, undertake specific pieces of work including investigations and reviews.






















Who does it report to?
 
CJI is funded by the Minister for Criminal Justice and the Chief Inspector is appointed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. On a day-to-day basis the Chief Inspector and CJI deal with the Minister for Criminal Justice within the Northern Ireland Office.
 
CJI is an independent Inspectorate which under law is required to make all its reports publicly available.  It must also lay all its reports before the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. 
 
While permission to publish a report must be sought from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Minister is not allowed to influence or alter the content of CJI’s reports. The Secretary of State may only deny permission to publish a report or request that part of a report is altered or omitted when it would be against the public interest, or might jeopardise the safety of any person.

What about in the future?
 
The Chief Inspector currently reports to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.  It is intended that once policing and justice powers are devolved to a local Ministry within the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Chief Inspector should also report to this Minister.


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