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 examination is referred to as the National Investigators' Examination (NIE). The trainee investigator must pass the examination to progress on to subsequent stages of the ICIDP.
• Phase 2 consists of a six-week full-time study course.
• Phase 3 involves trainee investigators being required to meet a set of occupational standards within the workplace.

The 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 equal opportunities / community and race relations 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.

If you are interested in receiving further research in relation to the NIE, please e-mail the NIE Team.

Canidate Feedback Survey  November 2009

If you have recently taken the examination on the 24th November, You may wish to take the candidate feedback survey. Take the survey here.