Clause 22 - Equality duties

Part of Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:30 am on 16 July 2013.

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Photo of Paul Goggins Paul Goggins Labour, Wythenshawe and Sale East 10:30, 16 July 2013

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I want to make a short contribution to this important debate.

Those of us on the Committee who do not represent constituencies in Northern Ireland need to approach this debate with considerable humility and great care. Those of us who have had the privilege of having an involvement in Northern Ireland will always remember our engagement with the victims of the conflict there. I am thinking of meetings that I had with families of the disappeared or with the widows of police officers who had been murdered. The trauma, pain and heartbreak those people have suffered is beyond the comprehension of many who do not live in Northern Ireland and have not been part of that difficult story. We need to approach this matter with considerable humility.

Frankly, I think that however well-intentioned they are, the amendments give the Committee an almost impossible task. I want to set out why I think that is the case. The right hon. Member—my right hon. Friend—for Lagan Valley wants to make section 75 clearly applicable to the victims of the conflict and to members of the armed services. He has explained his reasons why, but, of course, in doing that, he has to define what is meant by a victim of the troubles. He has put forward what to those of us who are not from Northern Ireland seems to be a very reasonable point of view: he wants to exclude those who have been convicted of terrorism offences and has put that provision in the amendments.

However, my hon. Friend the Member for Foyle has also put forward a very reasonable argument by asking, what of those who, it is well known, were involved in terrorist activity but were never actually convicted of a terrorist offence? Indeed, what of those who were convicted of terrorist offences whose cases have been referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission to the Court of Appeal and whose convictions have been quashed? That does not mean to say that they have been found  innocent of the charges against them; it simply means that the verdict has been declared unsafe by the Court of Appeal.

Suddenly, we see an immediate difficulty for the Committee. The truth is that the issue of who is a victim of the conflict in Northern Ireland cannot be determined in a technical way by a Committee sitting in the House of Commons. It can only be determined as part of a comprehensive process of dealing with the past—a process of reconciliation.

The hon. Member for East Londonderry mentioned the Eames-Bradley report. I well remember its publication: all the headlines and the controversy centred on the issue that he mentioned, which was the recommendation of a payment of £12,000 to the families of anybody who was a victim. That would have included people who were paramilitaries in the past, which was wholly unacceptable to many in the community.

It was unfortunate that that was the only recommendation from the report that received any publicity or consideration. There were other recommendations, including, crucially, that there be no amnesty—a very important recommendation, in my view; there should never be anything of that kind—but also recommendations for a reconciliation forum, a legacy commission, a review and investigation unit, and an annual day of reflection and remembrance. There were some very good recommendations that unfortunately got very little consideration because of the most controversial one. However, that report was an attempt by the previous Government to get a process under way that could assist the people of Northern Ireland in dealing with such difficult, almost intractable problems relating to their past. It was a genuine effort.

That responsibility still remains a crucial, key, core responsibility of Her Majesty’s Government. We now have a different Government, but it is important that they give priority to the need for a process that deals with the past, and that can deal with the victim of the conflict as well as many other issues. I hope that the Minister will deal with such matters in his response. Those who tabled the amendments have done so for legitimate reasons, but such provisions present us with an almost impossible task, a point that I hope will be subject to reflection.