The British government has asserted that Sinn Féin is no longer making a distinction between "civic" and "political" policing in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland minister Paul Goggins has also assured MPs that the abolition of the Assets Recovery Agency in the North - and its merger with the Serious Organised Crime Agency - will not affect PSNI priorities in tackling organised crime.
During Northern Ireland Questions in the Commons yesterday, Conservative MP Greg Hands asked if ministers agreed that "it is not right for Sinn Féin Assembly members to make a distinction between civic and political policing, as they appear to be doing?"
In reply, Mr Goggins said: "Time is moving on. People may have made that distinction in the past, but it is not being made now.
"Sinn Féin has made a historic commitment to support policing and the rule of law. It is actively encouraging people from its communities to report criminality to the police, and in the very recent past it has indicated that its members intend to take up their positions on the policing board. There is no such distinction in Northern Ireland, nor should there be."
Conservative Henry Bellingham asked Northern Secretary Peter Hain if he shared his "grave concern that the IRA has still not disbanded its army council?"
Mr Hain told him: "Obviously, at the appropriate moment, everybody would like to see such structures go, because they have no purpose." However, Mr Hain also noted an earlier Independent Monitoring Commission report saying that "the structures of the IRA were helping to drive out criminality and any remnants of paramilitary activity".