Criminal Justice
Northern Ireland has one of the most forward looking criminal justice systems in Europe after committing to a radical modernisation programme.
Putting human rights and equality at its core, Northern Ireland’s criminal justice system has innovative crime preventive packages, improved services and support for victims and witnesses, and a number of new, independent institutions including the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments (NIJAC) Commission, Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) and the Public Prosecution Service (PPS).
The origin for change flowed from the Belfast Agreement which agreed a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system, the first of its kind in 30 years. The Criminal Justice Review made 294 recommendations for change across the system.
The Government accepted almost all the Review recommendations and published its Implementation Plan and Updated Implementation Plan to set out how it would implement them. It also introduced the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 and the Justice (Northern Ireland Act) 2004 to give many of them legislative effect.
To complement the strong commitment of all the criminal justice agencies to the fundamental reform and improvement of the system, independent checks and balances were put in place to ensure the system is both transparent and accountable.
The Justice Oversight Commissioner, Lord Clyde has been proactive and insightful in fulfilling his oversight function. He concluded in his sixth and last report, “The enormous work involved in the implementation of these 294 recommendations is substantially completed”.
News Releases
- Goggins welcomes massive civil recovery settlement Wednesday 1 July 2009
- Woodward attends Somme commemorations Wednesday 1 July 2009
- HRH the Earl of Wessex attends Agri-food conference in Belfast Wednesday 1 July 2009
Publications
- Bulletin 2/2009 Section 75 - The impact of Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 on the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland PDF Document, 941 KB
- Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 - Guidance Notes PDF Document, 381 KB
- Possession of extreme pornography guidance Feb 2009 PDF Document, 136 KB
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