Chief Inspector, Jacqui Durkin

Jacqui’s role as head of the organisation means she has responsibility for ensuring the Inspectorate carries out a programme of inspection among the criminal justice agencies within its legislative remit.
 She also has responsibility to report the findings of CJI’s work to the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice and to ensure the Inspectorate’s reports are laid in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Jacqui was appointed as Chief Inspector with effect from 30 November 2019. She is committed to working to secure improvements within the criminal justice system for the benefit of the community.

Background

Prior to joining CJI, Jacqui worked as the Director of Wellbeing and Inclusion within the Department of Education and was policy lead for a number of key areas including Special Educational Needs, child safeguarding and protection, pupil behaviour, Looked After and Newcomer children and young people.

She previously held the role of Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service and prior to this served in a number of senior operational and corporate service roles in the Northern Ireland Court Service.

During her career in the justice system, Jacqui led on a number of key service improvement strategies including the development and implementation of the Integrated Court Operations System that introduced digital technology, data sharing and services to the administration of the criminal courts in Northern Ireland. She was also the Northern Ireland Court Service operational lead for implementation of the criminal justice wide Causeway system.