Northern Secretary Peter Hain has insisted proposals to support community restorative justice schemes will not lead to local quasi-police forces that could effectively be run by republican or loyalist paramilitaries.
Mr Hain met the policing board yesterday evening to try to reassure its members there was no hidden agenda behind the proposals to support community restorative justice schemes.
The SDLP in particular, but other politicians as well, have expressed fears that the schemes - which in many cases bring victim and perpetrators of crime face to face as the victim seeks redress - would allow paramilitary groups to be involved in local policing without actually supporting the PSNI.
"I want to nail the rumour that community restorative justice is some kind of alternative to policing. There can be no two-tier structure to policing," Mr Hain said yesterday before addressing the policing board.
"This is a very important part of the criminal justice system and it will be done strictly according to the guidelines which we will publish in due course and will be done with the highest levels of integrity," he added.
He was emphatic the system would not bypass the police. "This system can only work with the full confidence of the police and the criminal justice system, no ifs, no buts, full stop. I keep saying it. I repeat it now. And people who are spreading rumours about it do themselves no service and do the cause of justice in our community no service either," Mr Hain said.
Two weeks ago Sir Desmond Rea, chairman of the policing board, expressed serious concerns about the schemes. The board, however, appeared somewhat reassured after its private meeting with Mr Hain yesterday, describing the meeting as "positive and constructive".
In a statement, the board said it told Mr Hain it believed such schemes were a good concept but must not lead to a two-tier policing system and must not exclude the PSNI.
The members said they were unanimously agreed that the British government "should not be progressing any initiatives of this nature unless, and until, all political parties have endorsed the existing police structures".
Earlier, SDLP MLA and board member Alex Attwood said it would be a "strategic error" if the British government introduced new legislation for these schemes without Sinn Féin first endorsing policing.
Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly accused the SDLP of being paranoid regarding the issues. "Criminal restorative justice is not an alternative to a policing service. It never has been nor pretended to be," he said.
