Sinn Féin expects new British legislation, providing for the eventual transfer of policing and justice powers to Stormont, to be presented to MPs at Westminster when parliament resumes in October.
This emerged last night as usually reliable sources confirmed the party is continuing to press for the wiping-out or cancellation of criminal records for terrorist offences committed in the context of what Sinn Féin regards as "a political conflict" in Northern Ireland.
Such a move - on foot of planned measures to effectively pardon fugitive paramilitaries, or OTRs (on-the-runs) - would face furious opposition from the Democratic Unionists, the Conservatives and the Ulster Unionists in the House of Commons.
From the republican perspective, however, it seems this is still considered an essential ingredient in any final package of reforms clearing the way for an eventual Sinn Féin endorsement of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Wiping the records clean would remove the bar to republicans otherwise willing to serve as independent members of District Policing Partnership Boards.
However, the Patten Commission ruled out the possibility of people convicted of serious offences during the Troubles serving in the PSNI or its proposed part-time reserve.
While allowing that young people convicted of minor offences and with a subsequent record of non-transgression should not be barred, Patten proposed that the standard set for recruitment to the police should be in line with that which applies to police forces throughout the rest of the UK.
Discussions on these and other vexed questions - including the "representativeness" of the policing service in Northern Ireland - are set to continue between Sinn Féin and British officials.
Central to those discussions will be the extent of powers to be devolved, and the subsequent exercise of responsibilities of Northern Ireland ministers and the British government in a post-devolution situation.
If the DUP makes good its current threat to postpone the resumption of power-sharing devolution for at least two years, Sinn Féin says a new policing dispensation will then be a matter "for joint delivery" by the British and Irish governments.
Under last December's aborted "comprehensive agreement" the completion of IRA weapons decommissioning was to have been followed by agreement by February of this year on the modalities for the future devolution of policing and justice powers to a single or twin Stormont ministry.
It is presently unclear how Sinn Féin demands for local accountability and control could be met without the restoration of a power-sharing executive.
Republican sources made clear in advance that the IRA statement formally ending its campaign was not predicated on the assumption that the DUP would agree to resume power-sharing.
The absence of any British demand for a prior act of IRA decommissioning or a photographic record of decommissioning - combined with the start of British demilitarisation measures and the focus now on "parallel" progress - have underlined the Sinn Féin leadership's success in restoring its relationship with British prime minister Tony Blair, despite the difficulties generated by the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney.