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PSNI National Investigators' Examination

The Police Service of Northern Ireland's National Investigators' Examination identifies those candidates that can demonstrate a sufficient level of law and procedure relevant to a trainee investigator.

It is a paper-based multiple-choice examination, testing knowledge of law and procedure relevant to the role of a trainee investigator. It represents phase 1 of the Initial Crime Investigators' Development Programme (ICIDP).

The ICIDP consists of three phases:

  • Phase 1 - Written examination. The trainee investigator must pass the examination to progress on to subsequent stages.
  • Phase 2 - A six-week full-time study course.
  • Phase 3 - Trainee investigators required to meet a set of occupational standards within the workplace.

The PSNI NIE examination consists of 80 questions, over 2 hours (10 questions are validation questions and do not contribute towards the final mark).  All questions within the examination are subject to rigorous quality assurance checks by both legal and race and diversity experts.

In addition to this, all questions used to assess trainee investigators' knowledge have previously been trialled as validation questions in previous examinations and are considered acceptable in terms of their statistical properties.

PSNI NIE Examinations 2009

The Examination dates for 2009 have now been published, see the table below. 

Important Note: At the request of PSNI, NPIA will not be holding a PSNI National Investigators' Examination on 2nd September 2009 due to a lack of candidate nominations. 

Any queries relating to the PSNI NIE should be directed to exams.investigator@npia.pnn.police.uk.

Examination Dates for 2009
 3 March 2009
 2 June 2009
 2 September 2009 (cancelled)
 24 November 2009