PSNI 'must be more open to scrutiny'

New British government plans to open up Northern Ireland’s police force to scrutiny still need to be strengthened, it was claimed today.

As draft legislation aimed at ending the crisis in the peace process was revealed ,the nationalist SDLP insisted it was not yet fully convinced that demands to give the police ombudsman more powers and allow the policing board to launch inquiries into Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s force had been fully met.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan confirmed he still had misgivings on these two crucial areas after a party delegation held talks with security minister Jane Kennedy in Belfast on the draft police bill.

He said: “They are not fringe issues at all. They touch fundamentally on issues of accountability and openness.

“There are issues that would be of concern to the policing board corporately and to the ombudsman.”