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Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Answer

It is assumed that by ‘letters of comfort’ my Noble Friend means those letters issued under the administrative scheme introduced by the previous Labour Government which were intended to inform individuals that, as at the date of the letter, the recipient was ‘not wanted’ for questioning or prosecution in Northern Ireland or the rest of the UK.

Prior to 10 April 1998, no such letters were issued. The first such letters were signed by Mr Jonathan Powell (the then Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff) and were sent to Sinn Féin on 15 June 2000. A total of 156 individual such letters were issued during the scheme, 144 were issued prior to 12 April 2010.

The following table provides more detail of all letters that were issued.

2000	During the year: (a) 2 individuals received the above mentioned letters from Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff; (b) 0 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2001	During the year: (a) 16 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office; (b) 0 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2002	During the year: (a) 17 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office; (b) 19 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2003	During the year: (a) 9 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office; (b) 23 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2004	During the year: (a) 0 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office; (b) 0 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2005	During the year: (a) 4 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office (1 of whom had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 17 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin for the first time that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland” (in the cases of 12 of those individuals it appears that Sinn Féin had already been notified of that fact at a meeting). A further 46 are similarly informed during the year and had been also advised as such at an earlier time by the Northern Ireland Office.
2006	During the year: (a) 8 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office (2 of whom had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 5 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2007	During the year: (a) 58 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office (35 of whom had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 0 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2008	During the year: (a) 6 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office (2 of them were on the Irish Government List and 1 had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 1 individual informed in writing for the first time by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”; a further 7 individuals are similarly informed during the year and had also been advised as such at an earlier time by the Northern Ireland Office.
2009	During the year: (a) 21 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office (2 of whom receive the same letter on two separate occasions, and 10 others of whom had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 5 individuals informed by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2010	During the year: (a) 11 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office (4 of whom had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 5 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin for the first time that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”. A further 29 individuals are similarly informed during the year and had also been advised as such at an earlier time by the Northern Ireland Office. In addition, 4 individuals are informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin for the first time that they were “wanted for return to prison in Northern Ireland” but were “eligible to apply to the Sentence Review Commissioners for early release”. 2 of those 4 individuals had previously been informed that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2011	During the year: (a) 1 individual received an above mentioned letter from the Northern Ireland Office (the individual had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 1 individual informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.
2012	During the year: (a) 3 individuals received the above mentioned letters from the Northern Ireland Office (1 of whom had previously been informed that they were ‘wanted’); (b) 0 individuals informed in writing by the Northern Ireland Office via Sinn Féin that they “would face arrest and questioning if they returned to Northern Ireland”.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL6692

Session

2016-17

Subjects

Northern Ireland Terrorism

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk