Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman was today labelled a waste of money after an Ulster Unionist peer claimed the office had secured only four successful convictions over the past four years.
In an attack on Nuala O'Loan's investigative team, Lord Maginnis of Drumglass demanded an inquiry into how her office operated after a response to a Parliamentary Question revealed the office received £26.5 million between 2001 and 2005.
Lord Maginnis was also told there had only been four successful convictions against police officers out of a total of 475 cases referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions during that time.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass
"In effect it works out at over £6.6 million per conviction," the UUP peer claimed. "By no criterion could this be described as value for money.
"In effect the per capita cost of a criminal conviction arising from complaints investigated by the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is over 250 times the equivalent cost of a criminal conviction by the Police Service of Northern Ireland."
The Police Ombudsman investigates complaints against PSNI officers and has also probed the work of the PSNI's predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
But the ombudsman's office defended its record, insisting it was unfair to the PSNI, the public and its investigators to use the prosecution of police as a yardstick for measuring its success.
A statement said: "In particular, it does not allow for the possibility that an independent impartial investigation can come to the conclusion that there is no evidence to support a given allegation against an officer.
"There are many police officers who have had cause to thank us for our investigations.
"More importantly, from 2001 to 2005 we sent more than 580 files to the Director of Public Prosecutions. In almost 540 of those, we recommended to the director that there was no evidence to justify the prosecution of any officer."
The ombudsman`s office said its independent approach was appreciated by the public.
PA