October – December

Kit Chivers, Brendan McGuigan and Tom McGonigle gave evidence to the Ad Hoc Committee on the draft Criminal Justice Order, which will end automatic 50% remission and introduce new indeterminate and extended sentences for dangerous offenders.

Kit Chivers extended a warm welcome to the Minister for the Courts in Northern Ireland, David Hanson MP when he visited CJI’s Belfast office for the first time since his appointment to the Ministry of Justice.


Minister was joined by David Lavery, Director of the Court Service in Northern Ireland and Jacqui Durkin (Head of Court Operations, NICtS) for the meeting with CJI’s Chief Inspector and his deputy, Brendan McGuigan. 

Criminal Justice Inspection has presented its 2006-07 Annual Report and Accounts to Parliament following its approval by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office.  The report tracks the progress of Criminal Justice Inspection during the last financial year.

Criminal Justice Inspection has issued invitations to attend its 2008 Stakeholder Conference at the Stormont Hotel, Belfast, on Thursday 17 January.  The one-day conference will provide an opportunity for CJI to consult its stakeholders on its work over the past year and its proposals for 2008-09.  The conference will have a special focus on the prospects for devolution of policing and criminal justice in Northern Ireland.  It will also provide an opportunity to learn from the experience of others and provide a forum for discussion on the benefits and challenges that devolution will present.  To keep informed on the 2008 Stakeholder Conference, please visit our Stakeholder Conference webpage by clicking on the link.

A follow-up report on the management of sex offenders in Northern Ireland has been published by Criminal Justice Inspection.  The report found that progress had been made by the various agencies involved in managing the risk posed by sex offenders since its last report was published in December 2006.  This report concludes the work undertaken by the Inspectorate following the murder of Strabane pensioner Attracta Harron.

Section 45 of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 has come into effect.  This provision brings the Northern Ireland Court Service (NICts), the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission and the Life Sentence Review Commissioners within CJI’s remit.  CJI’s Chief Inspector Kit Chivers welcomed the development adding that the Inspectorate looked forward to working with the organisations in the future.

Criminal Justice Inspection has published a report on enforcement within the Department of the Environment and its regulatory agencies – the Driver and Vehicle Agency; the Environment and Heritage Service and the Planning Service.  The report has called on the DoE to adopt a more direct, determined approach to enforcement as part of its regulatory responsibilities and to get touch with hard core offenders involved in environmental and vehicle-related crime.  The report makes 15 recommendations for improvement.

A follow-up review of the Causeway IT system has been published by Criminal Justice Inspection.  Causeway is a multi-million pound IT project aimed at improving the exchange of information between criminal justice agencies in Northern Ireland.  The review has found two thirds of the recommendations made in CJI’s original inspection report (published in July 2007) have been achieved and that corporate governance arrangements have been improved.

CJI has praised the work Office of the Police Ombudsman in its follow-up inspection review.  The review showed the Office of the Police Ombudsman had implemented the majority of 13 major and 14 minor recommendations made by Inspectors in their original inspection report published in December 2005