BackThe Police Ombudsman’s Office and the the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have signed a new agreement which will oversee the processes by which police provide information to the complaints body.
The agreement comes after months of detailed discussion between the two organisations over the procedures involved.
Since her appointment as Police Ombudsman last year, Marie Anderson, who in a previous role established and managed the Information Commissioner’s Office in Northern Ireland, said she had wanted to develop the process to ensure her investigators had the best access to material:
“From the beginning I wanted to become more directly involved and get a detailed understanding of how police search their vast estate for material. I soon came to the realisation that my investigators needed to be involved at every stage of that search on occasions. I know that providing us with information has at times been difficult for police, not least because of the vastness of the task but also the legal duty on all of us to protect the most sensitive of information. But the public must have confidence that police provide my Office with all the information it asks for. Both the Chief Constable and I agree such disclosure is central to confidence in both our organisations. I believe this agreement will allow for better searching for and sharing of this information,” she said.
Read the full agreement here.
Source: The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
