Troubles legacy: 'Failures' found in NI Office policy

An investigation has found failures by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) in developing policy on dealing with the legacy of the Troubles.

It follows a complaint to the Equality Commission in December last year.

The commission ruled that the NIO had breached its duties by not releasing an equality assessment document on how victims of the conflict in Northern Ireland would be affected.

The two groups who lodged the complaint welcomed the decision.

The complaint related to a statement in March last year in which the government signalled its intention to move away from Troubles investigations envisaged under the Stormont House Agreement.

The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) objected.

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They said the government had, "unusually", declined to release an equality assessment document setting out how the policy would affect groups of victims.

They complained to the commission, stating it represented a breach of legislation connected to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement known as section 75.

'Haphazard policy making'

Geraldine McGahey, chief commissioner of the Equality Commission, said it had carried out a detailed examination of how the NIO developed "this important policy matter".

She said failures had been found in the "key process of undertaking equality assessment during the policy making process".

"The Northern Ireland Office should have followed the commitments set out in its Equality Scheme and we found that it did not," Ms McGahey added.

"It must now consider our recommendations for improvements to their processes of undertaking equality assessments of proposed policies."

The CAJ said the commission's investigation "had shone a light on haphazard policy making on legacy".

"It is notable that the NIO departed from applying its equality scheme procedures properly at the same time that it unilaterally ditched the Stormont House Agreement," it added.

Since the complaint, the NIO has updated its legacy ideas further.

In July this year, it said it wanted to legislate this autumn on a plan to end all Troubles-era investigations, prosecutions, inquests and civil actions.

The idea has been rejected by all Northern Ireland parties and victims' organisations.

A spokesperson for the NIO said it takes its equality duties "very seriously" and "the potential impacts of all our policies are considered at every stage of policy development".

"This specific investigation relates to a previous written ministerial statement from March 2020.

"We have always made clear that we would release the screening document on our legacy proposals once enough policy detail had been developed," the spokesperson said.

"As such, an equality screening on addressing the legacy of the past was issued on 19 July 2021 following the publishing of the government's command paper on 14 July 2021."