Hilary Benn: NI truth recovery body will help victims’ families ‘find an answer’

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has said a truth recovery body will “help families find an answer” as he justified Labour keeping the commission established under the previous government.

As part of the King’s Speech, the Government announced they would be bringing forward measures to “begin the process” of repealing the Legacy Act.

While the entire Act cannot be repealed without something to replace it, the Government is expected to axe the controversial policy of offering conditional immunity for Troubles crimes.

The Act was designed to address unanswered questions from the Troubles but has been almost universally opposed by Northern Ireland parties and victims’ groups due to the conditional immunity offered to perpetrators.

Under the legacy legislation, limited immunity would be exchanged for full co-operation with the truth recovery body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (Icrir).

It also ended civil cases and inquests which were not at findings stage earlier this year.

During Northern Ireland questions, Conservative MP for Harrow East Bob Blackman said victims and their families had “waited a long time for closure on these particular issues”.

He said: “I understand absolutely the need to create a consensus across Northern Ireland for what is going to be proposed.

“But could (Mr Benn) set out that for the House, the timeline and the plan for actually achieving that? And also agree to come back to the House and update the House when that plan is written.”

Mr Benn replied: “I can say to him as far as the independent commission is concerned, the Government has decided that we will retain it, because the Stormont House agreement, that we say we want to return to the principles that it set out, that is both information recovery and continued investigation.

“Those two functions are in effect combined in the independent commission.

“I met Sir Declan Morgan (Icrir chief commissioner) yesterday to talk about how that work can be taken forward.

“The commission is now open for business and it is available to families to approach to find an answer that many of them have been looking for for so long.”

Conservative former minister Richard Holden asked for clarification that “any future legislation will protect now elderly veterans from vexatious legal action in the future”.

Mr Benn paid tribute to “the work that veterans, members of the police and the security services did over many years during the Troubles in trying to keep people safe from terrorism” and clarified that veterans organisations would be engaged with during the consultation.

DUP MP for Upper Bann Carla Lockhart asked the Northern Ireland Secretary what discussions he is having with groups representing “innocent victims” and asked for assurance that “there will no pandering to those who were the victim makers”.

She continued: “Also what meaningful engagement is he having with the Irish government who oppose the Legacy Bill but have disgracefully refused to deal with the many allegations of state collusion with the provisional IRA, thinking specifically about the long-awaited public inquiry into the Omagh bombing?”

The Omagh Bombing Inquiry was established in 2024 by the previous government to consider whether the bombing in Omagh, County Tyrone, on August 15 1998 could reasonably have been prevented by UK state authorities.

The bombing was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles, with 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, killed in the attack.

A preliminary hearing for the inquiry will be held at the end of the month in Omagh.

Responding to Ms Lockhart, Mr Benn said he had met Tanaiste Micheal Martin on the matter and “expressed the hope that a way forward can be found” that would lead the Irish Government to withdraw their interstate case against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the Legacy Act.

He added: “I will certainly engage with victims organisations, a number of which I met during my time as the shadow secretary of state because I am committed to trying to find a way forward that in the end, if this is going to work, it’s got to work for the victims’ families because they’re the people who say ‘what went before hasn’t given us what we were looking for’.”