Update on timings for planned publication of the substantive report

My last update on the timing for the main report of the Review was given on 19 March 2025, when I indicated that I hoped to produce a draft substantive report to the Chief Constable “by early July”, after which there would need to be a process of security checking and consideration between the Chief Constable and the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) in relation to his presentation to the Board of the publishable report.

There has been some slippage in that process in that I was not able to submit the draft report to the Chief Constable until Friday 25 July 2025. Until recently I had envisaged that it would be possible for the publishable report to be available to the NIPB for their meeting on 4 September 2025 – and that was the basis of what the Chief Constable told the Board at their last meeting in relation to the timing of the report.

Taking account of the time needed to complete the steps leading to finalisation, and the undesirability of these being unduly compressed, after discussions involving the Chief Constable and the NIPB it is now proposed that the report will be available to the Board in advance of their meeting on 2 October 2025 and published by the Chief Constable very shortly thereafter.