Its remit covers institutions in Northern Ireland that provided residential care for children from 1922 to 1995,[3] but excludes most church-run schools.

Inquiry Rule 14(3) does not allow any explicit or significant criticism of a person unless the chairperson has sent them a warning letter, with a reasonable opportunity to respond.

Only the Inquiry legal team questioned witnesses, and victims and survivors were not normally cross examined by anyone else except in extremely unusual cases.

[6][7] In October 2019 the House of Lords passed the Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Bill[8] "to establish the Historical Institutional Abuse Redress Board and confer an entitlement to compensation...", and it was passed by the House of Commons as one of its last acts before the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

[13] In June 2020 Interim advocate Brendan McAllister was called to resign again after victims accused him of having a "conflict of interest",[14] after he was ordained as a Deacon in the Catholic Church.

Mr McAllister assisted in liturgy at Saint Peters Church in Warrenpoint as part of the Down and Conner Diocese, despite the HIA Inquiry having found that the Diocese of Down and Conner failed to raise concerns about serial child abuser Father Brendan Smyth, and did not inform social services or the police.

"[18] He said that all documents considered relevant and without private information would be placed on the Web site, starting before the report was released, but warning that it would take some time before the task was completed.

"[20]: 15:22  Others angry at the institutions' apologies included Caroline Farry, who attended St Joseph's Training School in Middletown from 1978-1981, overseen by nuns from the Sisters of St Louis,[20]: 15:04  Pádraigín Drinan from Survivors of Abuse,[20]: 14:55  and Alice Harper, whose brother, a victim of the De La Salle Brothers, had since died.

[20]: 14:55  Peter Murdock, from campaign group Savia, was at Nazareth Lodge Orphanage with his brother (who had recently died); he likened the institution to an "SS camp".