The Police Ombudsman has a primary statutory duty to secure an efficient, effective and independent complaints system and in doing so to secure the confidence of the public and the police in that system. The Policing Board had a range of meetings with the Office of the Police Ombudsman including one meeting in the last 12 months with the full Policing Board to discuss issues of mutual interest, including trends emerging around policies and practices; new technologies and contentious policing issues. In line with a protocol agreed with the Police Ombudsman’s Office these annual meetings will become biannual. The Police Ombudsman’s office also presented complaints statistics each quarter to the Human Rights and Professional Standards Committee which assists the Policing Board in delivering on its statutory duty to monitor trends and patterns in complaints and this will continue for the new Community and Human Rights Committee. In addition, quarterly informal meetings continue between the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Policing Board and the Police Ombudsman and informally at officer level. As a direct result of the Policing Board’s engagement with the Police Ombudsman’s Office (and a report flowing from an Independent Assessment of the work of the Policing Board, chaired by Sir Keith Povey), the Policing Board have been given a seat on the PSNI Regulation 20 Review Panel. This will allow observation of implementation of the recommendations made by the Ombudsman in
Regulation 20 reports. Engagement with the Police Ombudsman assists Members in fulfilling their statutory duty to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of PSNI as well as to secure public confidence in the service.