Sinn Fein MPs Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness are to be offered NIO-funded home security for the first time, while bypassing the normal requirement for a police assessment of their security needs.
Sinn Fein members have been excluded from the Key Persons Protection Scheme until now because they refused to allow the RUC to carry out home security inspections due to allegations of collusion between the police and loyalist paramilitaries.
The scheme allows people in public life who are considered to be under threat to have security measures installed in their homes.
Mr Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein Assembly member who was involved in the NIO discussions, said that security measures would be put in place for a small number of party members within a few weeks.
MPs qualify automatically for the scheme, but this will be the first time that Sinn Fein's MPs will benefit from it.
Mr Maskey, who has been attacked by loyalists four times and is to be included in the scheme, said that a number of other applications were also being processed. "We have made limited progress, which falls very well short of what we view as adequate security for our members", he added.
Meanwhile, the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community group (LOCC) in south Belfast has received notification from the NIO that the RUC will carry out "threat risk analyses" of some of its members under the same scheme. Members of the group, which is opposed to Orange Order marches in the predominantly Catholic area, have received threats recently, according to a spokesman, Mr John Gormley.
Police visited up to 12 people living in the Lower Ormeau/Short Strand/Markets areas in the past two months, including three LOCC members, to notify them that their details had been found in the hands of loyalists, Mr Gormley said. He added: "We have an understanding of our security needs and all we are doing is investigating the scheme to see what potential there is."