Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998

42 Publication of reports of inspectors of constabulary

(1) Subject to subsection (2), the Secretary of State shall arrange for any report received by him under section 41(2) or (3) to be published in such manner as appears to him to be appropriate.

(2) The Secretary of State may exclude from publication under subsection (1) any part of a report if, in his opinion, the publication of that part—

(a) would be against the interests of national security or prejudicial to public order; or

(b) might jeopardise the safety of any person.

(3) The Secretary of State shall send a copy of the published report to—

(a) the Police Authority; and

(b) the Chief Constable.

(4) The Police Authority shall invite the Chief Constable to submit comments on the published report to the Authority before such date as it may specify.

(5) The Police Authority shall prepare comments on the published report and shall arrange for—

(a) its comments;

(b) any comments submitted by the Chief Constable in accordance with subsection (4); and

(c) any response which the Authority has to the comments submitted by the Chief Constable,

to be published in such manner as appears to the Authority to be appropriate.

(6) The Police Authority shall send a copy of any document published under subsection (5) to the Secretary of State.

(7) Subsections (3) to (6) shall apply in relation to a report relating to the National Criminal Intelligence Service as if—

(a) references to the Police Authority were references to the Service Authority for the National Criminal Intelligence Service; and

(b) references to the Chief Constable were references to the Director General of the National Criminal Intelligence Service.