Peace process could face another blow

THE Northern peace process will be plunged even deeper into crisis if ex-paramilitary prisoners are allowed to sit on police scrutiny bodies before the IRA disbands, the British Government was warned last night.

New policing legislation designed to win Sinn Fein backing for the service and restore the power-sharing administration at Stormont is set to be put to the political parties in Belfast today.

It is also expected to meet the nationalist SDLP’s demands to give N I’s police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan more powers and allow chief constable Hugh Orde’s policing board to launch inquiries into the force.