The National Investigators' Examination

The National Investigators' Examination (NIE) is the legal knowledge test for officers and staff entering phase 2 of the Professionalising Investigations Programme (PIP2), the route to working as a detective or investigator. The College of Policing's candidate handbook for 2026 describes its purpose as identifying candidates with enough knowledge, understanding and application of law and procedure to perform in PIP2 and as a trainee investigator. This page is educational information drawn from that handbook and from the College's subject area breakdown for the March 2026 sitting.

Entry is open to warranted officers, police staff investigators and people in other bodies with an investigative role who have been selected as potential PIP2 students. Candidates must show current competence against the PIP level 1 criteria, and it is for the force or organisation to demonstrate that. Unlike the sergeants' and inspectors' exam, the NIE is not a promotion exam.

The paper

The NIE is a single paper of 80 multiple-choice questions with a two-hour time limit, taken online within a 12-hour window on the exam day. Ten questions are removed at marking, those that performed least well, and candidates are scored on the remaining 70. Candidates are not told which were removed. The questions are written by trained question writers and quality assured by the College's legal services team and independent legal experts. A debrief panel that includes a Police Federation member, a College occupational psychologist and a service member nominated by the recruitment, retention and wellbeing of investigators board ratifies results before release.

Unsuccessful candidates may resit at the next sitting, subject to force policy. After a second failure the handbook requires a development meeting between the force and the candidate to consider whether this is the right pathway at that time.

What it covers

Questions fall into four areas: general principles, police powers and procedures; serious crime and other offences; property offences; and sexual offences. The syllabus is the 2026 edition of the Blackstone's Police Investigators' Manual, whose four parts match those areas, and the handbook says it is the only resource the College endorses. Candidates are examined on the law only as it appears in that edition.

The balance of questions follows a blueprint built from a survey of investigators, weighted to the law they meet most, though any part of the syllabus can be asked. The exam does not test recall of the manual's tables, but where the text refers to a paragraph of a PACE Code of Practice, that provision is examinable.

The College published a subject area breakdown for the March 2026 sitting listing each scored question's area, skill and subject, from omissions and chains of causation through Code D identification procedures to handling stolen goods and sexual communication with a child. Counting its rows, 24 fall under general principles, 22 under serious crime, 12 under property offences and 12 under sexual offences. Of the ten questions removed, seven were in general principles and one in each of the other areas. The breakdown states that it is valid only for that sitting and should not be used to predict later papers.

Pass marks

The pass mark is 55.7 per cent, which is 39 correct answers out of 70. Candidates scoring 85.7 per cent or more receive an exceptional grade. The debrief panel reserves the right to alter the pass mark in exceptional circumstances.

2026 dates

Four sittings, each between 8am and 8pm:

• Wednesday 4 March 2026
• Tuesday 2 June 2026
• Tuesday 8 September 2026
• Tuesday 17 November 2026

Registration closes at 6pm on 4 February, 6 May, 12 August and 21 October 2026 respectively; forces may set earlier dates. Results are due by 25 March, 23 June, 29 September and 8 December 2026, as a feedback report through AIMS. No certificate is issued; the report is the proof of the result and cannot be reissued.

Pass rates

No NIE results and analysis report was read for this page on 19 October 2026, so no pass rate is given here.

How people prepare

"It is recommended that candidates spend a minimum of 14 weeks completing independent study, using the prescribed syllabus for the examination, which is the Blackstone's Police Investigators' Manual." That is the handbook's only study recommendation, and it adds that the Blackstone's Police Investigators' Q&A and Mock Examination Paper were developed outside the College and cannot be assumed to match the style or difficulty of the real paper.

The College's own practice material lives in the Candidate Online Examination Guidance group on its Knowledge Hub, which holds practice questions, exam tips, study timetables and a revision technique guide. Candidates reach it through their force's NIE liaison contact.