NORTHERN IRELAND Secretary Hilary Benn has outlined the steps the British Government will take to...
NORTHERN IRELAND Secretary Hilary Benn has outlined the steps the British Government will take to repeal and replace the controversial Legacy Act. Following his election earlier this month, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was quick to announce his intention to scrap the Troubles legislation put in place by the previous Conservative government, which was widely criticised by all political parties in Nothern Ireland and in the south. Yesterday, Mr Benn provided an update in parliament on the government’s approach to removing the most troublesome elements of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, including the immunity it provided for those guilty of Troubles crimes and the removal of the right for the families of those killed during the conflict to seek inquests or investigations into those deaths. “The Government has today written to the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal to formally abandon all its grounds of appeal against the section 4 Human Rights Act declarations of incompatibility made by the Northern Ireland High Court in relation to the Act,” Mr Benn said. “The declarations of incompatibility that the Government is no longer challenging include those relating to the conditional immunity provisions, which could - had they not been struck out by the High Court - have seen individuals being granted immunity from prosecution for providing information about Troubles-related deaths and serious injuries,” he explained. “This is the first step in fulfilling the Government’s manifesto commitment to repeal and replace the Act,” Mr Benn told the House of Commons. “Victims and survivors have felt ignored by the previous Government’s approach to legacy, which has been clearly rejected across communities in Northern Ireland,” he added. “The conditional immunity provisions, in particular, have been opposed by all Northern Ireland political parties and by many victims and survivors, as well as being found by the Court to be unlawful.
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Great news. The legislation was just an attempt by the Tory government to evade its responsibility towards victims of violence on both sides, but especially if that violence was committed by British soldiers, against Catholics, obviously.