Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland

The Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland was established in 1998 as part of the Belfast Agreement, intended as a major step in the Northern Ireland peace process. Chaired by Conservative politician and the last Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten (later the Lord Patten of Barnes), it was better known as the Patten Commission and it produced a report in 1999 known as the Patten Report. The other members of the Commission were Maurice Hayes, Peter Smith, Kathleen O'Toole, Gerald W. Lynch, Sir John Smith, Lucy Woods and Professor Clifford Shearing. The Secretary to the Commission was Bob Peirce, who drafted the report.