Troubles team will face job cuts

The team is investigating unsolved Troubles era murders

Some of the police team examining unsolved Troubles era murders are to temporarily lose their jobs, the BBC has learned.

The 180-strong Historical Enquiries Team faces a £1.5m shortfall until its new budget comes in on 1 April.

The HET has said it must significantly reduce its workload after promised additional funding was withdrawn.

The DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson said that the Northern Ireland Office was creating a "hierarchy of victims".

"That means that investigations into hundreds of unsolved murders here will have to be put on hold," he said.

"We are really entitled to ask the NIO if there is a hierarchy of victims here?

"We've got people who are looking for justice, 3,000 unsolved murders somewhere in the region of almost £200m has been spent on the Saville Inquiry (into Bloody Sunday) which involved 12 or 13 deaths but here we have thousands of unsolved cases and the government won't give £1.5m extra to the HET."

The NIO said that extra funds for the team had to be judged "against the overall challenging financial position".

"Funding issues are currently subject to ongoing discussions involving the PSNI, the Policing Board and the NIO," it said.

"These are taking place in the context of the need for everyone to take decisions on spending priorities within the current economic climate and within the very significant public resources - well in excess of £1.1 billion in this financial year - allocated to the PSNI."

The Historical Enquiries Team was set-up three years ago and given a budget of £34m over six years to examine more than 3,200 deaths.