THE judge-led report into the British government's controversial OTR scheme will be published today.
Secretary of State Theresa Villiers is expected to outline the main findings of the probe by Lady Justice Hallett, right, this morning in Westminster.
The inquiry was ordered by British Prime Minister David Cameron in March following the collapse of the case against the Donegal man accused of the 1982 Hyde Park bomb in which four soldiers died.
The prosecution of John Downey (62) was halted when it emerged he was wrongly sent a so-called letter of assurance informing him the authorities in the UK were not looking for him.
The court case brought to light the existence of 'comfort letters' to around 200 individuals known as OTRs - or on-the-runs.
At the time DUP leader Peter Robinson said the revelation threatened the stability of the Stormont institutions.
The Northern Ireland Affairs select committee is carrying out its own investigation into the scheme, which unionists claim they were oblivious to.
The scheme was administered by the Northern Ireland Office and is thought to have been set up by the then Labour government following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
It has been claimed that unionists chose to ignore the scheme's existence despite evidence that some form of assurances were being given to republican suspects.
Although details of the OTR scheme were never made public, high profile cases involving jail escaper Liam Averill and leading republican Eibhlin Glenholmes were reported on more than a decade ago.