{"id":86537,"date":"2025-05-09T05:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T05:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/86537\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T05:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T05:25:11","slug":"psni-draft-new-policy-on-public-interest-immunity-certificates-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/86537\/","title":{"rendered":"PSNI draft new policy on Public Interest Immunity certificates \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PSNI has drafted a new policy on the use of Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificates.<\/p>\n

PII certificates are used by state agencies to withhold information they do not want the public to see.<\/p>\n

The use of certificates contributed to the collapse of several high-profile legacy inquests last year, including that of murdered Co Derry GAA official Sean Brown.<\/p>\n

Before his inquest was abandoned a coroner issued a gist, or summary, which revealed more than 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.<\/p>\n

\"Border<\/a>\"Falling<\/a>\"PSNIPSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n

The British government later launched a retrospective judicial review of the decision by the coroner to provide the damning gist.<\/p>\n

PII certificates have also been issued in non-conflict related cases, including the death of teenager Noah Donohoe.<\/p>\n

The 14-year-old went missing during a bike trip from his home in south Belfast in June 2020.<\/p>\n

His body was found in a north Belfast storm drain six days later.<\/p>\n

Suspicions surrounding the teenager\u2019s death were compounded by an application by the PSNI for PII certificates to withhold information from his inquest.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Policing Board on Thursday, Mr Boutcher said he fully accepts \u201cand will always comply with the PSNI responsibility to protect sensitive information and national security\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current approach to disclosing sensitive information such as redacting information on the grounds of national security and public (interest) immunity certificates is much stronger here than I have experienced in the UK,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose differences only serve to generate suspicion and undermine confidence in policing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese processes will improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher revealed police have drafted a new PII policy which has been shared with the \u201cNorthern Ireland Office and reviewer of terrorism legislation and the legislate in Northern Ireland that manages national security\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat work is ongoing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher said the policy will be published once it has been agreed.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in Policing Board member Gerry Kelly later referred to PII certificates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe terrible example of how badly it was abused was around the young Noah Donahoe case where PIIs were introduced, nothing to do with the conflict\u2026I am glad that you are going to publish, as you have said, a PII document, a lot of people will be wating strongly for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PSNI has drafted a new policy on the use of Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificates. PII certificates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,1618,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-86537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-psni","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114476215463460924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}