Sir John Stevens is leading the investigation into alleged collusion

The findings of the Stevens Inquiry will be delivered to the chief constable Hugh Orde on Thursday but already Mr Finucane's family have dismissed it.

Mr Finucane, a high-profile Catholic solicitor, was shot dead by the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association in front of his family at his home in 1989.

Since 1989 Sir John Stevens has been investigating allegations that elements within military intelligence and the RUC's Special Branch were colluding with loyalist assassination squads.

Central to what is the third Stevens report, is Mr Finucane's murder and evidence that police special branch selected him for assassination by loyalists.

His widow Geraldine said it had been a waste of effort.

Mr Finucane was shot at his north Belfast home in 1989

Whatever the inquiry's recommendations they will have a familiar ring to them for Mr Orde, who ran most of the inquiry before becoming chief constable last year.

In February, it was announced that prosecution papers were being prepared surrounding a former head of a secret military intelligence unit in Northern Ireland.

The papers being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecution are in relation to Brigadier Gordon Kerr.

Brigadier Kerr, who is now military attache in Beijing, formerly headed the military intelligence Force Research Unit in Northern Ireland at the time of the murder of Pat Finucane.

The papers deal with collusion in general and other matters and are broader than the murder of Pat Finucane.

Thursday's report may well be judged on how it addresses the key question of exactly who knew what and when and what it says about the way in which the security forces fought their war against the paramilitaries.

Only one person has faced charges in connection with Mr Finucane's murder, but the case against William Stobie was dismissed in November 2001 through lack of evidence.

Stobie, a self-confessed former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) quartermaster, was murdered by loyalists outside his home in the Glencairn area of Belfast a month later.