What the report is
The Report of the Patrick Finucane Review was written by Sir Desmond de Silva QC and laid before the UK Parliament on 12 December 2012 as House of Commons paper HC 802. It was commissioned by the government in October 2011 to give a full public account of any involvement by the Army, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Security Service or other parts of the UK state in the murder of Pat Finucane on 12 February 1989.
It is not the report of a public inquiry. The review had no power to compel witnesses and held no public hearings. It worked mainly from government files, including the archives of the three Stevens investigations, and from interviews and written submissions.
How it is organised
Volume I is the narrative. After a foreword and an executive summary come 25 chapters. The early chapters set out the background to the review and the context of the late 1980s: the intelligence structures, how agents were run, and the careers of the two state agents at the centre of the case, Brian Nelson and William Stobie. From chapter 12 the report turns to the murder itself, and the final chapters deal with what the state did afterwards, the first Stevens investigation and the question of ministerial knowledge.
Volume II reproduces many of the documents the review relied on, with redactions. See our Volume II overview.
How to use these guides
Each guide gives a short account of what a chapter covers, the main conclusions in our words, a few short quotations (always attributed) and the page range in the printed report. They are meant to help you find your way into the official text, not to replace it. Where the report's conclusions have been criticised, for example by the Finucane family or by academic reviewers, we say so briefly.
Start with the executive summary and principal conclusions or go to the Volume I contents.