The British government and SDLP clashed tonight over claims the party had failed to submit proposals for state funded neighbourhood justice schemes in Northern Ireland.
SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood urged Northern Ireland Office minister David Hanson to go back and check his facts after he said he had received no proposals from the party on restorative justice.
Earlier Mr Hanson said the SDLP and other critics needed to be clearer about their vision for the schemes.
"At the moment it is not illegal to run a community restorative justice scheme," the minister said.
"So the question for the SDLP and others is: are they saying to me I should make it illegal to operate these schemes?
"If the funding comes from American philanthropists or any other charitable source, should I ban that charitable activity? Or are they saying I should put in place regulations to make sure they operate within the criminal justice system?
"Alex Attwood asked me to publish these documents. I have done it.
"He asked me to give the political parties a chance to comment upon it. I have done it. He has asked me to consider the points he is making. I will do it when he has made them.
"I don't think to date I have had a submission from the SDLP - they may have sent one but I haven't seen it in front of me on my desk."
Restorative justice schemes operating in loyalist and republican neighbourhoods bring the perpetrators of low-level crime face to face with their victims to agree an appropriate penalty.
Sinn Fein and supporters of the schemes argue they are a viable alternative to paramilitary expulsions and so-called punishment attacks.
Unionist and nationalist critics, however, fear republicans in particular want restorative justice organisations to act as an alternative to the police in their neighbourhoods.