Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Lexden (Conservative). It was answered on Tuesday, 8 April 2014.

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Northern Ireland: On-the-runs

Question

I know that my noble friend fully understands the sense of shock and outrage which now exists as a result of the revelation a few weeks ago that the previous Government arranged for secret letters to be sent to more than 150 terrorist suspects at the behest of Sinn Fein. Mr Gerry Adams said that,

“it would be better if there was an invisible process”—

words quoted at the recent Downey trial before its collapse. Why on earth did this Government continue the shameful collusion with Sinn Fein by allowing more letters to be sent out by officials at the Northern Ireland Office until the end of 2012? The Government have made it clear that the letters confer no permanent immunity from prosecution. Will my noble friend give us an absolute assurance that the police in all parts of our country are fully aware that we want them to gather evidence and bring terrorists to justice for their shameful crimes?

Answer

My Lords, if at any time we had been presented with a scheme that amounted to immunity, exemption or amnesty, we would have stopped it, consistent with the opposition of both coalition parties to the previous Government’s Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill in 2005, which proposed an amnesty. The current Government continued the scheme on the basis of continuing with existing cases to the overwhelming part until 2012, and continued work on it until the early part of 2013. Noble Lords must wait for the outcome of the review to know the full details.

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Secondary information

Type

Oral question

Reference

753 c1237 

Session

2013-14

Oral question type

1st Supplementary

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords chamber

Subjects

Criminal investigation IRA Northern Ireland Terrorism

Link

View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk