The proposals announced yesterday state that it is the intention to "avoid the use of plastic bullet rounds, except where there is a serious risk of loss of life or serious injury".
This represents little change from the position set out in the report on policing in Northern Ireland by Mr Chris Patten in September 1999.
Mr Patten recommended that the use of plastic bullets should be "confined to the smallest necessary number of specially trained officers who should be trained to think of the weapon in the same way as they would think of a firearm, that is, a weapon which is potentially lethal".
The plastic bullet, or baton round, has been the key weapon in the RUC and British army's armoury in dealing with rioting in Northern Ireland, where disturbances tend to occur on a scale and intensity not experienced in other countries.
Plastic bullets have been responsible for the deaths of 14 people in Northern Ireland, six of them Catholic children. A Catholic mother of three, Mrs Nora McCabe, was killed with a plastic bullet fired by the RUC as she was shopping in 1981.
Only one of the victims, Mr Keith White (20), from Portadown, was Protestant.
The issue of plastic bullets remains a highly emotive one among the communities where they have been used. However, the RUC points out that more deaths occur from street violence in the North, especially when police are unable to use conventional means to separate warring factions.
The greatly reduced use of plastic bullets by the RUC has also, inevitably, resulted in far greater numbers of police suffering injuries, some very severe. This, in turn, reduces the number of personnel available to police public disturbances and contributes to the spread of disorder.
Mr Patten recommended the examination of other "non-lethal" anti-riot equipment, including using blunt and multiple impact kinetic energy transfer, noxious chemicals, incapacitating high-voltage shocks and water cannons.
Sinn Fein made the ban on plastic bullets its main stance on policing in its manifesto for the June British general election. None of the political parties in Northern Ireland appears to have given extensive consideration to the "non-lethal" alternatives.
Sinn Fein has also advocated the "return of powers" to the Policing Board, the District Policing Partnership Boards (DPPBs), the Oversight Commissioner for Police Reform and the Police Ombudsman, but clearly plastic-bullet use remains one of the key issues to be resolved.
However, in any of the proposals where it appears there can be movement towards satisfying Sinn Fein demands, there is likely to be opposition from within unionism and the police establishment.
The policing package announced yesterday does not make specific reference to the DPPBs. But the proposal to introduce legislation "to reflect more fully the Patten recommendations" suggests movement towards nationalist demands on this issue.
The proposals state that this legislation will follow as soon as possible after a seven-month review of policing changes by the Oversight Commissioner, the former leading US police officer, Mr Tom Constantine, to be completed in October next year.
The proposals also re-endorse the Patten recommendations on the Policing Board, which will have powers to order inquiries into any aspect of police behaviour.
This board is to have 19 members, 10 of whom will be elected representatives from the Northern Ireland Assembly and reflective of the "consensual constitutional arrangements". This would give Sinn Fein at least two seats on the board.
Mr Patten recommended that the board be independent of both government and the police.
The board is far more powerful but less contentious that the proposed DPPBs. Mr Patten recommended there be between 22 and 26 of these local boards with the right to buy in services from local contractors for such things as security guards. This is regarded with great suspicion by some unionists and police who see it as a way that the IRA could infiltrate the police service.