Almost 10,000 police officers and staff affected by a huge data breach in Northern Ireland are to get a payment of at least £7,500 each.
The details of all the PSNI's serving officers and civilian staff were inadvertently published as part of a response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request in August 2023.
The database containing, surnames, initials, role, rank, location, gender and service numbers was attached to the FOI response which was published on a website as part of an Excel spreadsheet.
Nine thousand five hundred people were affected.
The PSNI later confirmed that dissident republicans were among those who had accessed the information.
They said 300 attempts had been made to look at it before it was finally removed.
Officers and staff had begun a group action for compensation seeking damages for negligence and violation of their right to privacy.
Senior officers later confirmed that service numbers were changed and some covert teams had to be relocated as part of a huge effort to degrade the value of the material.
The PSNI was also fined £750,000 by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for the breach.
The ICO said that but for the fact that public money was involved, the fine levied would have been in the region of £5.6m.
The Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers said today the compensation offer was "substantial and major progress" in the long-running case.
However, it said the offer would not cover "exceptional cases" where officers in particularly sensitive roles, or those with readily identifiable names might decide to continue their cases.
"This is not a one-size-fits-all offer. We will see some colleagues who were left particularly vulnerable wishing to proceed with their legal cases," said federation chairman Liam Kelly.
"This has been a very costly error by the PSNI. £119m is ring-fenced for compensation payments from April.
"Many of our officers felt extremely vulnerable by the information that was accidentally released.
"The upheaval forced some to re-locate or instal substantial home security systems to protect themselves and their families.
"This Federation welcomes the universal offer. It will deliver welcome closure for many of them but we have to recognise the fact that for some of our colleagues, the damage caused by the breach will have longer-term effects and consequences," he said.
