Proceedings were brought in 2008 by John Flynn against the PSNI Chief Constable over an incident mentioned in the 2007 Ballast Report into police handling and management of informants.

The discovery of documents related to the report became a central issue to the case and, last year, Mr Justice Stephens criticised the Chief Constable for making no effort to comply with discovery orders.

However, the Court of Appeal today pinned the blame for delays on the PSNI’s “laborious and time-consuming” redaction process.

The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, proposed that a new approach in any case where the existing approach to discovery or disclosure may give rise to onerous obligations or would prevent a case being dealt with expeditiously and fairly could be for the court to intervene with a view to finding a proportionate response, saving expense and ensuring that the parties are on an equal footing.

He said the “nature of that intervention will respond to the particular circumstances of the case”. In this case, he proposed the documents identified by the Chief Constable as potentially relevant “should be provided initially in unredacted form to the lawyers representing the Chief Constable so that an informed independent approach can be taken to the documents that actually need to be disclosed”.

Sir Declan added that any subsequent redaction “will also need to be assessed for its proportionality”.

He said: “There are likely to be considerable opportunities to avoid laborious and time-consuming redaction by providing a gist of the relevant information or alternatively making formal admissions in relation to the effective content of the documents.

“Since the documents are in the custody, power or possession of the applicant the onus to ensure a proportionate approach to disclosure rests primarily with those representing the Chief Constable.”

This being the case, the Court ordered:

The Court also said its suggested approach seems appropriate for other similar cases and similar steps should now be taken in them.