NI police changes 'global model'

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Changes to the PSNI are regarded as an international model for implementing policing changes, Lord Patten has said.

The former chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing was on his first visit to Northern Ireland in eight years.

Lord Patten also said he was not surprised that Sinn Fein had finally joined the Policing Board.

"We thought it would happen, we thought it was part of the implicit bargain in the Belfast Agreement," he said.

"I'm sorry that it took Sinn Fein so long.

"I don't wish to crawl over old arguments, but they could have been in this position some time ago - to the advantage of the policing of their own communities."

The review of policing in Northern Ireland by the former Hong Kong Governor was one of the key elements of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.