Country
Justice and public safety in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is a legal system rather than a state: its own police service, its own principal prosecuting authority, its own courts and its own prison service, all separate from those of England and Wales and of Scotland. It is part of the United Kingdom and is not Ireland, which is a separate sovereign state.
Institutional facts on these pages were checked against their sources on . Where a cited provision carries a scheduled change, the page states the date.
Jurisdictions modelled
A territory can exist administratively without being a separate legal jurisdiction. This table records, for each modelled tier and territory, whether it has its own arrangement for a function, whether the function is organised nationally, or whether we have simply not researched it.
| Jurisdiction | Level | Courts | Prosecution | Policing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Ireland | legal-system | own | own | own |
unknown means not researched. It is never a synonym for none: an unresearched territory does not inherit the metropolitan arrangement.
Sources
Sources
The National Archives (United Kingdom) · Legislation · link verified 2026-09-18
SCOPE: the general duty of police officers in Northern Ireland. The official consolidated text, read directly. Supports that it shall be the general duty of police officers to protect life and property, to preserve order, to prevent the commission of offences, and where an offence has been committed to take measures to bring the offender to justice. The section is shown as extending to Northern Ireland (N.I.). It establishes nothing about the governance of the police service, which is in other provisions not read here.
About the PPS — Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland
Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland · Government publication · link verified 2026-09-18
SCOPE: the PPS's own account of itself. The service's about page, read directly. Supports that the PPS is the principal prosecuting authority in Northern Ireland; that it makes prosecution decisions in cases investigated by the police there and considers cases investigated by other statutory authorities such as HM Revenue and Customs; that it is led by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland; that the Deputy Director has the same powers as the Director but exercises them subject to the Director's direction and control; and that both posts are public appointments made by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland. The current office-holders are named on the page and are NOT republished here.