AS we've long said, until we're blue in the face, there has to be some sort of independent inquiry into the farce that has been - and still is - Operation Lancet.

In lieu of the Home Secretary doing the decent thing, it must be a welcome move that the Crown Prosecution Service is reviewing the files.

The serious accusations levelled by Stuart Bell MP and Chief Constable Barry Shaw against Ray Mallon have to be tested in court, just as Mr Mallon's defence has to be tested in court.

Hopefully this way, the public will at least get an inkling of who is telling the truth because, at the moment, they have no more than gut instincts to go on.

And the truth is not just of interest to the Cleveland taxpayers who have footed the bill. Zero tolerance is being talked up more and more as a valid policing method in combating street crime in Britain.

Mr Mallon's brand of zero tolerance - backed by his chief constable - did work in both Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. Lancet has to tell the public whether it worked legally. If there was at its core an "empire of evil", an understanding of the way it was implemented and managed is of vital importance to the rest of the country as it seeks answers to the serious problems of street crime, burglary and robbery.

There will be eyebrows raised over Cleveland Police's timing of the referral of the Lancet files to the Crown Prosecution Service as Mr Mallon is fighting the Labour hierachy of Middlesbrough, which has a say in the running of Cleveland Police, in the mayoral election.

These conspiracy theories, we hope, are unfair. In this instance, Cleveland Police are as much victims of the Lancet timetable as Mr Mallon was when he felt compelled to change his plea to guilty so he could escape its clutches in time to stand for mayor.

If Cleveland Police had dallied over forwarding the files, they would have been accused of wasting further taxpayers' money and it would have looked as if they were scared of their evidence being rejected by the CPS for a second time.

They had to act speedily, as they have.

It is surely in everyone's interests that Lancet comes to a transparent conclusion as quickly as practicable. Hopefully, the Crown Prosecution Service can provide that conclusion, even given Lancet's bedevilled track record.