Recommendation 10

HM Government Acknowledged

The UK Government acknowledges and agrees with the Committee’s assessment that tackling paramilitarism in Northern Ireland requires a whole of government approach. The restoration of the Executive provides an opportunity to ensure that work to tackle paramilitarism remains a priority, and to drive change across the whole system to ensure that efforts to address the issue of paramilitarism are adopted as core business, are coherent and coordinated, and sustainable. On the issue of the scope of national security, the UK Government is committed to keeping under ongoing review the effectiveness of mechanisms for coordinating the responses to the range of threats and harms from terrorism, paramilitarism and organised crime. Our assessment is that roles and responsibilities are well understood and partners are joined up and effectively working together across the ecosystem that underlies paramilitarism, organised crime and terrorism. There are good working relationships and cooperation between the UK Government, NI Executive departments, law enforcement and security partners in tackling this shared ecosystem. Developments in the threat environment are kept under review, to ensure the appropriate capabilities are deployed in line with the respective powers and responsibilities of those involved in the response. PSNI have a wide range of powers available to them to tackle the threat from paramilitarism. We are not aware of any appetite for additional powers from PSNI that would require Westminster legislation. The UK Government sponsors the Independent Reviewer of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 which ensures that some of the Northern Ireland-specific powers available to police, for example in relation to stop and search, are kept under constant review. We also keep under review wider UK legislation to ensure it remains effective in supporting NI Executive-led efforts to tackle paramilitarism.