Deputy Chief Inspector Asker Husain spent a week in Montenegro with the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice, and senior judiciary and prosecutors, where he advised on the possible future role of the Supervision Division – which is their version of HMCPSI.

This followed on from a visit that a senior Montenegrin delegation made to HMCPSI earlier this year, in which they were given information on the inspection process and the way in which the Inspectorate was set up and its functionality.  The delegates were impressed with what they heard, and invited the DCI for a week-long visit to Montenegro.

Over the course of the week, the DCI met with the Head of the Supervision Division (who would in effect correspond to the role of the Chief Inspector of HMCPSI), the President of the Supreme Court, the President of the Judicial Council, and the Chief Special Prosecutor among others.

DCI Asker Husain said of his visit:

“The visit was extremely useful as it provided an opportunity to hear in detail about the Montenegrin justice system and how their inspectorate worked.

“One aspect that Montenegro is currently developing is its legal system to ensure it complies with Chapters 23 and 24 of the requirements to join the European Union.

“The project I was involved in related to this aspect. In essence I was asked to assess the effectiveness of the current supervision/inspection model with a view to making recommendations to strengthen the judicial and prosecutorial inspection services.”

Following on from the visit, the DCI prepared a report making strategic recommendations, with the intention of assisting the policy makers in Montenegro to decide the direction they wish the Supervision Division to take.

The DCI said that there is still quite a bit of work to be done:

“As was acknowledged by the Montenegrins, they have a long way to travel before they undertake inspections along the lines of HMCPSI. This process will take time to develop, years rather than months, but I have emphasised that it is very important that the direction of travel is carefully considered now to ensure there is a “project plan” developed to implement all aspects of the complicated jigsaw puzzle.

“I will be interested to see how the Supervision Division develops in the future”.