In a ruling handed down yesterday, Mr Justice Scoffield said he had “no hesitation in concluding” that the UK government “remains in breach of Article 2 on the basis of the ongoing delay in completing an investigation which satisfies the requirements of that provision”.

The judicial review was brought by Mr Finucane’s widow, Geraldine Finucane, nearly two years ago.

The UK Supreme Court previously ruled in February 2019 that the state had failed to deliver an Article 2 compliant investigation into the death of Mr Finucane, who was shot and killed by loyalist paramilitaries in collusion with UK security forces.

The government did not respond until December 2020, when it said it would not establish a public inquiry and highlighted an ongoing “review process” within the PSNI and investigations by the Police Ombudsman.

However, the PSNI subsequently said there are “no new lines of inquiry” and the Police Ombudsman said the murder was “not central to any of our ongoing investigations”, which human rights campaigners said challenged the government’s explanation.

The UK government had unlawfully failed to reconsider an inquiry after the end of the review process, Mr Justice Scoffield said.