Source · Select Committees · Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Rejected
Address concerns about the Bill’s narrow definition of “close family member” and case exclusions.
Recommendation
The Government must address concerns about the Bill’s narrow definition of “close family member,” which may exclude relatives who often play a key role in pursuing information decades after incidents occurred. Ministers must also consider the merits of ensuring that a person’s severe physical or mental harm does not preclude their case being referred to the commission. (Recommendation, Paragraph 57)
Government Response Summary
The government defended its current definition of 'close family member' but committed to continue engaging and considering alternative views. It also defended the definition of 'serious physical or mental harm', citing other Bill provisions for referral where the harm definition is not met.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The Bill’s current definition of ‘close family member’ (Clause 93) includes parents, siblings, and children. The Bill also allows the Commission to accept referrals from other relatives, such as grandchildren, if there are no close family members. The Government believes that this is a balanced approach, focusing in the first instance on enabling, by default, more immediate family members to request an investigation by the Commission, whilst providing sufficient flexibility to cater for different familial circumstances. For example, it would not, in the Government’s view, be appropriate for the Commission to accept a request for an investigation from a ‘non-close’ family member, where such a request may be against the wishes of a ‘close family member’ (as defined). However, we recognise that there are different views on this issue, and will continue to engage and carefully consider these. In the Government’s view, the current definition of “serious physical or mental harm” strikes an appropriate balance in ensuring that those most seriously injured are able to refer cases to the Commission, while protecting the Commission against an expanded and unmanageable workload that it is unable to adequately resource. The Secretary of State, under clause 28(3) of the Bill, is able to refer cases of harmful conduct to the Commission. The Commission, under Clause 32, is also able to initiate investigations if such an investigation is necessary for the purposes of ECHR compatibility. These provisions will ensure that the Government is able to discharge its ECHR Article 3 obligations, where that is required, in cases that do not meet the definition of serious physical or mental harm’. Clause 88 also enables the relevant police force to investigate a Troubles-related offence that is not considered a serious or connected offence.