There are two main strands to the investigative work of the office – current and historical.

Its current work involves dealing with complaints about the conduct of police officers during incidents which have occurred in the previous 12 months.

[4] Most of these historical cases relate to incidents during the conflict in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1998 (commonly referred to as “The Troubles”).

[6] Prior to that, Al Hutchinson, who had previously been Police Oversight Commissioner, took up office on 6 November 2007,[7] and retired in January 2011 following a series of critical independent reports.

The first Ombudsman for Northern Ireland was Nuala O'Loan, whose seven-year term in office ended in November 2007.