Controversial neighbourhood justice schemes in the North should be vetted to prevent people with criminal or paramilitary links since 1998 working in them, a committee of MPs urged today.

Northern police chief Hugh Orde will today tell MPs that controversial neighbourhood justice schemes must work under tight guidelines if they are to be state funded.

A committee of MPs will hear directly from neighbourhood justice schemes in the North today why they want state funding despite concerns about how they operate.

British government plans for neighbourhood justice schemes in the North could condemn nationalist communities to rough justice and one sided political policing, it was claimed today.