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Northern Ireland Office

Answer

Mr. William Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many complaints have been received by the office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in each month from his appointment up to the latest available date; how many in each month were (a) rejected, (b) withdrawn, (c) under investigation, (d) had investigations completed, (e) resulted in disciplinary proceedings being taken, and by whom and (f) resulted in files being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. [159156] Mr. Ingram: The make up and disposition of the complaints received by the Police Ombudsman from 6 November 2000 to 21 April 2001 are not available in the exact form requested. However the figures that are available are listed in tabular form in the two charts. Table 1: Cases and complaints received by the Police Ombudsman Number _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Month received Cases{ 1} Complaints November 2000 400 518 December 2000 265 362 January 2001 332 449 February 2001 283 360 March 2001 243 294 April 2001 220 252 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Cases may involve more than one complaint Table 2: Current status of cases received by the Police Ombudsman _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Month received Case closed{ Withdrawn Resolved Awaiting Other status Under Total 1} resolution investigation November 2000 174 25 16 23 12 150 400 December 2000 120 14 15 19 17 80 265 January 2001 117 18 13 39 5 134 332 February 2001 67 16 1 28 35 136 283 March 2001 22 8 0 58 46 109 243 April 2001 3 2 0 9 121 85 220 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} For various reasons Procedures for discipline and the sending of files to the Director of Public Prosecutions are currently being developed. Consequently, as at 21 April, no cases have resulted in disciplinary proceedings and no cases have resulted in files being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, the Police Ombudsman assumed responsibility for 2,396 cases under transitional arrangements from the Independent Commission for Police Complaints. Of these, five cases have resulted in disciplinary proceedings being taken and a total of 250 cases have been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

368 c47W; 159156

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Complaints Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk