Accountability and safeguards will be at the heart of devolution of policing and justice in Northern Ireland, the attorney general pledged today.
Rigorous scrutiny would follow the handing over of powers to the Assembly and ministerial Executive Stormont, Baroness Scotland told a conference today.
The step would finalise the establishment of a Belfast-based administration but has proved controversial, with some politicians opposed to any republican involvement.
Baroness Scotland said: "The structures are in place and there are plans of accountability and safeguards of independence.
"The reward is the governance of Northern Ireland affairs by the elected representatives of Northern Ireland and that is worth the risks that come with change and unfamiliarity".
Some members of the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist party have said public confidence is not ready for the involvement of Sinn Féin in decision making on security.
A special Assembly committee is considering whether a pre-devolution deadline of this May for handing down policing and justice responsibilities to the Executive from Westminster can be met.