The SDLP has rejected criticism of the party's stance on community restorative justice schemes from the North's political development minister, David Hanson, and Sinn Féin's justice spokesman, Gerry Kelly.
Mr Hanson, who last month published consultative proposals for running such schemes, challenged the SDLP to devise a workable alternative method of restorative justice while Mr Kelly said the SDLP's stance on the schemes was "flawed".
The SDLP, as well as members of the Policing Board and unionist parties, have warned that the community restorative justice schemes could effectively hand over control of local policing to republican and loyalist paramilitaries. This is a reference to the 14 projects in republican areas and five in loyalist areas that are being operated at local level and funded by American philanthropists.
Under the new proposals the local organisers of these schemes - which bring perpetrator and victim together to resolve issues of low-level crime - would be answerable to the official Community Justice Inspectorate, run by Kit Chivers.
The SDLP, however, warned that the schemes could lead to "two-tier" policing with the PSNI bypassed at an important local level. The proposals should only be implemented when Sinn Féin signed up to policing, it further urged.
Mr Hanson, who is due to publish his formal proposals for justice schemes at the end of February, said he had not yet seen a submission from the SDLP to his consultation paper. He asked yesterday if the SDLP was saying the schemes should be operated without even minimum standards of supervision.
"At the moment it is not illegal to run a community restorative justice scheme. So the question for the SDLP and others is: are they saying to me I should make it illegal to operate these schemes?" he told the Press Association.
Was it saying there should be no official inspectorate monitoring these schemes? "Now they may not think what we have proposed is tight enough - in which case come to me with positive suggestions about it.
"Don't come to me and say don't inspect the schemes - which is what the latest statement says - because then I'll say at the end of February there are no guidelines. However, the schemes will still be there," added Mr Hanson.
