Orde: Public inquiries hindering PSNI's policing duties

PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde has said the work of his officers is being hindered by demands for information to be used in various public inquiries.

Mr Orde was speaking at a meeting of the Policing Board in Belfast today.

He said demands for information relating to the Billy Wright and Rosemary Nelson tribunals, as well as other inquiries, was staggering.

He said the Stevens Report into the murder of Pat Finucane along had generated 1.9 million pages of paper, amounting to 20 tonnes.

The chief constable said he was committed to fulfilling his legal obligations, but it was costing the equivalent of 250 officers to sift through records and ensure sensitive information was not put in the public domain.

He said this was the greatest single threat to providing good policing and meeting criminal investigation targets in the North.