Source · Select Committees · Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Acknowledged
Ensure effective investigation of legacy cases, reopening defective ones with appropriate safeguards.
Recommendation
By introducing what it refers to as six new protections for veterans, the Government has attempted to address concerns among former military personnel and others that legacy investigations, whether leading to prosecution or not, have amounted to punishment in themselves. To ensure fairness, however, Ministers have necessarily extended these ‘protections’ to all those engaging in the process. In doing so, they risk over-selling these provisions as guarantees and therefore undermining trust among the very groups in which they hope to instil confidence. Similarly, in pursuit of truth and justice, the new provisions must ensure the effective investigation of legacy cases including, with clear and appropriate safeguards for all, the reopening of previously defective investigations, only where necessary for the purposes of ECHR compatibility or owing to new evidence. (Conclusion, Paragraph 138)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government explains the purpose of veteran protections and commits to continued engagement with veterans to inform careful consideration of additional measures, acknowledging concerns that current provisions may not go far enough.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
57. Part 3 of the Bill puts in place a clear regime for the conduct of investigations by the Legacy Commission. In particular, Clause 36 sets out the circumstances in which the Commission will conduct a criminal investigation capable of leading to a prosecution, or an investigation that seeks only to determine the facts of the conduct to which the investigation relates (referred to as a fact-finding investigation in the Joint Framework). 58. As part of this process, the Director of Investigations will, under Clause 36(8) be under a duty to consider any previous investigations conducted in relation to that case, and must ensure that the Legacy Commission does not do anything that duplicates any aspect of those previous investigations, unless it is essential to do so. This is a very high threshold. As noted by the Committee, this might be in order to discharge outstanding ECHR obligations, or where there is new evidence.
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