Attending the Crown, Magistrates' or Youth Court as a Police or Forensic Services witness

Overview

Have you been invited to attend Court as a Police witness (including Police Officers or staff) or an employee of Forensic Servies Northern Ireland in the last three years? If so, we’d like to hear from you.  

Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI) (the organisation responsible for inspecting criminal justice organisations in Northern Ireland) is conducting an inspection on how the criminal justice system supports, manages, and facilitates witness attendance at proceedings in the Crown, Magistrates’ and Youth Courts. We want to know how well the process works and about any personal or professional impacts you have experienced as a result of being invited to attend Court. We want to know whether the process of securing witness attendance at Court can be improved, modernised or made more efficient.  More information about our inspection can be found in our Terms of Reference, which is available at www.cjini.org.

If you have received a invitation to attend Court in your professional capacity as a Police witness or as an employee of Forensic Services Northern Ireland in the last three years, we’d like to hear about your views and experiences in this survey. (If you have been invited in your personal capacity as a victim or witness and would like to fill in a survey about this please go to X). 

Please note that the inspection does not include experience of being invited to the High Court or Court of Appeal. The survey should take 5 to 10 minutes to complete. The deadline for responses is 5.00pm on Friday, X Jan/February 2026. Your response to the survey is anonymous. We do not ask for your name or any personal details. All the information gathered will be used to help us assess how well the process of securing witness attendance at Court works. 

If you have any questions about the survey or our inspection, or if you would like to provide the inspection team with more information, please email info@cjini.org.uk.