Head of Kenova, Sir Iain Livingstone, has written to families to express his frustration at the delays in providing them with individual family reports.
A number of families will receive bespoke reports outlining the evidence Operation Kenova discovered in relation to their loved ones.
All the family reports were passed to UK Government between August and October last year to go through security checking. However, Kenova was informed that the checking would be delayed until after a decision had been made on whether to lift restrictions on naming Stakeknife – a recommendation of the Kenova Interim Report.
Currently, Stakeknife’s identity is protected by the Government’s Neither Confirm Nor Deny policy which is applied to protect sensitive information, including the identity of informants or agents.
Members of the Kenova team met with Government last week to discuss the possibility of proceeding with family reports without revealing Stakeknife’s identity.
In Sir Iain’s letter to families he said: "In an effort to move matters forward, I suggested that the family reports should be security checked on the assumption that Stakeknife would not be named. If ministers subsequently decide that he could be named, I would then update you and your family report accordingly.
"In addition, I offered to brief ministers personally, on behalf of Kenova and the families, to ensure ministers had a full understanding of Kenova’s position and why in this case we believe there should be a departure from the Neither Confirm nor Deny policy so that Stakeknife can be named."
He added: "It is deeply regretful that the security checking process for the family reports has taken so long. I hope that the personal briefings you received on your particular case last year gave you as much information as we were able to provide.
"I also hope this update explains the frustrating delays we have encountered and underlines that the Kenova team has being working hard to get the written family report to you as soon as possible."