The senior judge undertaking a two-week review into 56 legacy cases has called for action to speed up the pace of investigations.

Lord Justice Weir, the presiding judge of the Coroners’ Service, suggested that better training should be provided for PSNI staff dealing with backlogs in the process of disclosing classified material.

The delay in some inquests has been blamed on the backlogs. Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris recently said it was “almost impossible” to put a timeframe on their completion.

Lord Weir said matters “needed to be taken out of neutral and put into a forward-moving gear”.

Last week, Lord Weir said a “sense of commitment and urgency seems to have been absent” in a number of legacy cases.

He said: “The system used in the past of fixing dates for inquests in the hope that people will pull stops out to get ready for the given date hasn’t worked.”

Lord Weir added: “Dates have come and gone and families have been disappointed on successive occasions and we have to put a stop to that.”