The Secretary of State has today signed a six month extension to
a transitional provision made under the Northern Ireland Troubles
(Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, to allow investigating
bodies to carry out post-investigative tasks until 31st October
2025.
A transitional provision was made under the Act which specified
that, where all that remains to be carried out by the
investigating body is the preparation of the investigation report
or something subsequent to that, it may carry out those
post-investigative tasks until 30th April 2025.
The Government received requests from the Police Ombudsman for
Northern Ireland, KENOVA and the Police Service of Northern
Ireland to extend that provision in order to allow remaining
post-investigative tasks to be carried out.
The Government is committed to ensuring families receive
information as soon as possible about what happened to their
loved ones, so has agreed to extend the provision until 31st
October 2025.
The Government is committed to repeal and replace the Act. On 4
December 2024 the Secretary of State began this process by laying
a proposed draft Remedial Order under the Human Rights Act. If
adopted by Parliament, the Order will remedy all of the human
rights deficiencies in the Act identified by the Northern Ireland
High Court in February 2024 in the case of Dillon and Others and
one issue from the Court of Appeal judgment in September 2024.
The Secretary of State has also committed to introduce primary
legislation when parliamentary time allows, which will reform and
strengthen the independence, powers and accountability of the
Independent Commission on Reconciliation and Information Recovery
(ICRIR).
