North spends £30m each year investigating Troubles

Dealing with the past is costing Northern Ireland’s criminal justice system more than £30 million a year and risks denting public confidence in present-day services, an inspection has revealed.

Dealing with the past is costing the North’s criminal justice system more than £30m (€36m) a year and risks denting public confidence in present-day services, an inspection has revealed.

Long-delayed inquests into conflict deaths are taking hours of police service preparation, a historical enquiries team (HET) of independent detectives is looking into thousands of unresolved Troubles killings and the Police Ombudsman has scrutinised murder investigations dating back decades.