To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reasons he did not allow the Independent Assessor of Military Complaints access to the Army records of 11 and 12 July 2004 North Belfast Parades; and if he will allow the Independent Assessor access to these records.

We thoroughly considered the request for papers by the Independent Assessor and concluded that they were not required to enable the assessor to carry out his statutory function under the Terrorism Act 2000. In reaching this conclusion, the Ministry of Defence considered whether further analysis of the events on 12 July 2004 was necessary. The policing of these parades was examined in considerable detail by Keir Starmer QC and Jane Gordon in their special report for the Policing Board published in November 2004. We do not consider, given the action already taken, that any useful purpose would be served by further examination.

Ministry of Defence officials have written to Mr.McDonald to explain this reasoning.