Agreed vision and priorities needed to transform NI criminal justice system, says Chief Inspector

The inspection, published on Thursday (November 28) by Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI), looked at the how the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPS), Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS), Forensic Science Northern Ireland (FSNI), the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS), Youth Justice Agency (YJA) and the Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) worked together with the Department of Justice (DoJ) to secure transformation and improvement for the benefit of men, women and young people engaging with or working in the criminal justice system.

“Transforming the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland is easy to identify as a priority and aspiration but much harder to deliver,” said Jacqui Durkin, Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland.

“Over the last two decades our criminal justice system has seen investment in and delivered many service and technology enabled improvements, however it remains a complex network where the ‘wicked problems’ persist, and outcomes are fairly static.”

Despite the numerous strategies developed since the devolution of justice to the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly in April 2010, inspectors found there had been limited improvement in the performance of the criminal justice system, the experience of victims, witnesses and defendants or those working within it.

Criminal cases continue to take too long end-to-end with 90 per cent of all cases completed in 769 days in 2022/23 compared with 527 days in 2018/19.

“Transformation has been too readily used as a badge for too many service or system changes, that included organisations doing solo runs because they were affordable, without meaningfully collaborating with others on their impact,” said the Chief Inspector.

“What delivered an efficiency for one organisation could create a pressure elsewhere, making it imperative that a true partnership and system-wide approach to transformation and future investment is developed.”

“The Criminal Justice Board has already agreed five priorities to speed up justice and are well placed to agree a shared future vision for system transformation.

“I have recommended that in the next six months, the DoJ should agree with the key criminal justice organisations represented on the Criminal Justice Board, a shared future vision and strategic priorities to deliver transformational change and innovation across the criminal justice system.

“This should be clearly communicated and reflected in each organisation’s Corporate and Business Plans.”

Ms Durkin said Inspectors found the majority of transformation, service improvement programmes and project bodies were being led by the same relatively small pool of senior leaders and decision makers in the criminal justice system.

While this can deliver benefits through good working relationships and collaborative working, the Chief Inspector said it placed competing demands on their time and their contribution, which could be challenging to manage, particularly for smaller bodies where senior leaders had a day job to do alongside representing their organisation’s strategic interests.

“To address this I have recommended a review is undertaken in the next six months of all existing programme and project boards, working groups and other fora with the aim of reducing duplication and releasing capacity while retaining meaningful participation and decision making power.  This work should be linked with our recommendation to deliver an agreed shared vision and strategic priorities,” she said.

Ms Durkin said inspectors had identified a number of notable achievements during the inspection including the reform of youth justice and reduction in the number of children in custody, the introduction of the Causeway information sharing platform and video links for court proceedings, as well as the culture shift in the NIPS to focus on people in their care and preventing reoffending.

“We welcome these developments and the agile focused response of the criminal justice organisations and the Judiciary during the Covid-19 pandemic to come together in a crisis, to maintain business continuity and essential services while protecting the health and safety of those using or working in the criminal justice system,” she said.

“If there ever was a time for more cohesion and shared priorities it is now. We all know and feel the impact of budget pressures, so all the more reason to make sure priorities are known and shared across the criminal justice system and beyond it.

“Transformational change needs transformational leaders who have the courage and capacity to take risks and deliver the improvements needed to our criminal justice system that the public expects, and service users deserve.

“The Criminal Justice Board with a restored Northern Ireland Executive and Minister of Justice in place are uniquely positioned to provide the direction, decision making and accountability needed to help make this happen. A new Programme for Government that is committed to transformation should support the criminal justice system’s future vision.

“I believe the three recommendations included in this report when implemented can assist in achieving the change required and the delivery of a better justice system for all.”