Shaun Woodward will today be urged by the first licensed restorative justice schemes to operate in the North to release state funding to enable them to operate.

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.