The PSNI has not been fulfilling its obligation to provide full disclosure of intelligence material in legacy inquests, presiding coroner Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan has revealed.

In a statement issued to legal representatives yesterday, she said the PSNI Disclosure Unit “was not aware” the PSNI had taken possession of a military intelligence database in 2007.

This database, including Ministry of Defence (MOD) intelligence, was therefore not routinely searched by the PSNI Disclosure Unit when compiling disclosure of intelligence material for the coroner.

It comes weeks after the Court of Appeal blamed the PSNI’s “laborious and time-consuming” redaction process for delays in legacy litigation.

As of December 2017, the PSNI Chief Constable has directed that the PSNI will now also routinely search the military intelligence database.

Mrs Justice Keegan (pictured) added: “An exercise is already underway in an ongoing inquest to compare the material which PSNI has uncovered by searching the MOD database it holds with the material which the MOD had previously provided by way of disclosure to the Coroner and to date no major discrepancies have been found.

“In relation to other ‘live’ inquests the PSNI will now conduct searches of the MOD database it holds (and in fact has completed a review in a number of ongoing cases) and provide the material for determination of potential relevance to the Coroner’s legal representatives who will then have to carry out a comparison exercise with any MOD material already disclosed. It will be a matter for each Coroner to deal with on a case by case basis going forward to be assured that all disclosure obligations have been satisfied.”

In the statement, the presiding coroner also said she intends to develop a new Disclosure Protocol and will issue “a draft for consultation with all interested parties within the coming weeks”.