NORTHERN IRELAND TROUBLES (LEGACY AND RECONCILIATION) BILL

“My Government will prioritise support for the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and
its institutions, including through legislation to address the legacy of the past.”
The purpose of the Bill is to:
● Fulfil the manifesto commitment to address the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past
by providing better outcomes for victims, survivors and their families, giving
veterans the protections they deserve and focusing on information recovery and
reconciliation.
The main benefits of the Bill would be:
● Helping individuals and communities look to the future rather than the past, by
recovering and providing as much information as possible to people about
Troubles-related deaths and serious injuries.
● Reforming the current system for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles, moving
away from a focus on criminal justice outcomes and ending the cycle of
investigations that has failed both victims and veterans.
● Aiding wider social reconciliation to further mutual understanding in both the short
and long term, including by establishing a major oral history initiative that
provides an opportunity for people from all backgrounds to share their
experiences and perspectives related to the Troubles.
The main elements of the Bill are:
● Establishing a new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information
Recovery to enable individuals and family members to seek and receive
information about Troubles-related deaths and serious injuries, and to produce an
historical record of what is known in relation to every death that occurred during
the Troubles.
● Providing for how individuals can secure immunity from prosecution. In July 2021
the Government set out proposals to provide immunity from any prosecution for
future Troubles-related offences. The Government has listened carefully to a
range of views on the original proposal and it is clear that a model where
immunity is only provided to individuals who cooperate with the new Commission
provides the best route to give victims and their families the answers they have
sought for years as well as giving our veterans the certainty they deserve. This
still leaves open the route of prosecution if individuals are not deemed to have
earned their immunity.

● Providing for the delivery of an oral history and the memorialisation of the
Troubles. This will involve securing the long-term preservation of existing oral
history collections, with new physical and digital resources to maximise public
engagement with different narratives and Troubles-related stories.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply in the main across the UK, with some provisions
extending and applying to Northern Ireland only.
Key facts
● More than 3,500 people were killed during the Troubles, including over 1,000
members of the security forces. It is estimated by Malcolm Sutton [CAIN] that 58 per
cent of deaths were the responsibility of republican paramilitaries, 30 per cent of
loyalist paramilitaries, and ten per cent of the security forces.
● More than two thirds of deaths from the Troubles occurred over 40 years ago.
The passage of time means that ultimately, for those cases that get as far as a
trial, there is a high likelihood of ‘not guilty’ verdicts or trials collapsing.
● The Police Service of Northern Ireland currently has a caseload of over 900
Troubles-related cases involving nearly 1,200 deaths.
● In 2020, the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland told the
House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that to go through the
current Legacy Investigation Branch caseload, “which is not all the 3,500 deaths,
would take over 20 years from a standing start now on the current resource
base”.
● Using limited resources to pursue a small number of cases to prosecution
standards currently means that a tiny number of families may see someone
prosecuted, and an even smaller number may see an eventual conviction. This is
likely to be at the expense of failing to deliver positive outcomes to the vast
majority of families, who will miss out on the opportunities to successfully recover
information.