The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) today publishes its final report on the progress towards "security normalisation" or demilitarisation.
The Irish Timesunderstands the assessment of the progress on the dismantling of British security will be "pretty positive".
A source said the report would provide "the final sign-off on security normalisation". The period covered by today's report concluded at the end of July, coinciding with the formal end to Operation Banner, the name given to the British army's deployment in Northern Ireland since 1969.
It is expected to report that the dismantling of its security apparatus is all but completed on time and in line with expectations.
The last British army regiment withdrew from headquarters at Thiepval barracks outside Lisburn on July 31st to be replaced by soldiers who will be based at the barracks but will not be deployed in Northern Ireland in support of the police.
The British government has claimed a maximum of 5,000 soldiers will be stationed there, but it is understood the vast majority of these will be deployed around the world, particularly in the Middle East, leaving perhaps no more than a few hundred British soldiers in Northern Ireland at any one time.
Fortifications at police stations are being reduced, British army watch towers along the Border have been dismantled and requisitioned land is being returned to its former owners.
It is anticipated that all four of the commission's members - former senior civil servant Joe Brosnan; Lord John Alderdice, a former speaker of the Stormont Assembly; John Grieve, a former member of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist squad; and Dick Kerr, a former senior figure in the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States - will present their assessment of the current security apparatus at a press conference in Belfast this morning.
Although this report will mark the end of part of the IMC's work, monitoring of the paramilitary ceasefires will continue.
Another report, this time presenting the commission's assessment of the levels of paramilitary activity, is expected to be released some time in October.