NI Troubles: Government to move on NI Troubles legacy bill

Legislation will be introduced at Westminster on Tuesday to address the Troubles legacy with a pledge to include "robust and independent investigations" into killings.

The government also intends to commission an official history relating to the 30 years of violence.

The legislation will establish a new body for information recovery.

It will conduct investigations and consider immunity from prosecution for perpetrators who co-operate.

In last week's Queen's speech, the government announced it was changing its original proposal from last July, which would have ended all Troubles-era prosecutions - effectively an across the board amnesty.

Instead, those involved in killings will have to earn immunity by co-operating with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

Failure to do so leaves the door open to prosecution.

The ICRIR will have a panel of commissioners appointed by the government, including a chief commissioner of "high judicial standing".

There will also be a commissioner of investigations.

The ICRIR will provide reports into killings, "providing answers for families", and it will have powers to compel witnesses to come forward.

The government said what is proposed "complies fully" with international human rights obligations, but some victims' families are already geared up to take it to judicial challenge.

The legislation will also prevent future inquests and civil actions related to the Troubles.

Civil claims which already existed on or before the day of the bill's introduction will be allowed to continue, as will inquests which have reached substantive hearing stage a year after the bill, or by the time the ICRIR becomes operational.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill will help society look forward.

"This is a very difficult area and it can be very painful for people," Mr Lewis told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"One of the challenges is the current system isn't working for people. That's very clear.

"People shouldn't be taking 50 years to get information - we want to resolve those issues.

He said the legislation would "give people a reason to come forward and a motivation to come forward that at the moment simply doesn't exist".

Asked if people under investigation or facing charges could then give information in exchange for immunity, Mr Lewis said: "The independent body would take the view on if people have engaged in the right way and shared their information.

"That would be a matter for the independent body which will also have a judge involved in that process."

The secretary of state also announced the government's intention to commission an official history relating to the Troubles, conducted by independent historians.

Underpinned by "unprecedented access to the UK documentary record", he said this will provide an in-depth examination of the "government's policy towards Northern Ireland during the conflict".

The government has previously indicated that the legacy legislation will not be rushed through parliament under accelerated passage.

It could take many months to become law.

Victims' groups and political parties in Northern Ireland have criticised the legislation, questioning the quality of investigations which are envisaged, as well as conditional amnesties.

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O'Neill said she had yet to see the proposals, but claimed that the intent of the British government's policy basis appeared to be to "cover-up and close down any investigation into British state policy in Ireland over the last 50 years".

"In effect, they are about pouring concrete over Britain's role in the conflict," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster.

Ms O'Neill said there "should not be an amnesty for anybody" and that Sinn Féin had "always cautioned against any proposal for a statute of limitations".

Alan McBride, from victims' group the Wave Trauma Centre, said while the new proposals were better than the previous blanket amnesty, he was "not so sure it is a huge improvement".

He added: "You could also probably argue that was a negotiation tactic from the British government in that they put out something so ridiculous and abhorrent that whatever they were seen to do would always be an improvement to that.

"We will look closely at the legislation later, it does appear that the focus of this isn't the victim, as promised, but the perpetrator - because the perpetrator has a choice wither to engage in this process or not."