Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Year | 2023 |
| Citation | 2023 c. 41 |
Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023
2023 Chapter 41
An Act to address the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles and promote reconciliation by establishing an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, limiting criminal investigations, legal proceedings, inquests and police complaints, extending the prisoner release scheme in the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998, and providing for experiences to be recorded and preserved and for events to be studied and memorialised, and to provide for the validity of interim custody orders.
[18 September 2023]
Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
PART 1
The Troubles
1 Meaning of “the Troubles” and other key expressions
(1) In this Act “the Troubles” means the events and conduct that related to Northern Ireland affairs and occurred during the period—
(a)
(a) beginning with 1 January 1966, and
(b)
(b) ending with 10 April 1998.
(2) That includes any event or conduct during that period which was connected with—
(a)
(a) preventing,
(b)
(b) investigating, or
(c)
(c) otherwise dealing with the consequences of,
any other event or conduct relating to Northern Ireland affairs.
(3) Accordingly, in this Act an event or conduct “forming part of the Troubles” is an event or conduct that falls within subsection (1) (including any of a kind described in subsection (2)).
(4) In this Act “other harmful conduct forming part of the Troubles” means any conduct forming part of the Troubles which caused a person to suffer physical or mental harm of any kind (excluding death).
(5) For the purposes of this Act—
(a)
(a) an offence is “Troubles-related” if—
(i) it is an offence under the law of Northern Ireland, England and Wales or Scotland, and
(ii) the conduct which constitutes the offence was to any extent conduct forming part of the Troubles;
(b)
(b) a Troubles-related offence is “serious” if the offence—
(i) is murder, manslaughter or culpable homicide,
(ii) is another offence that was committed by causing the death of a person, or
(iii) was committed by causing a person to suffer serious physical or mental harm;
(c)
(c) a Troubles-related offence is “connected” if the offence—
(i) relates to, or is otherwise connected with, a serious Troubles-related offence (whether it and the serious offence were committed by the same person or different persons), but
(ii) is not itself a serious Troubles-related offence;
and for this purpose, one offence is to be regarded as connected with another offence, in particular, if both offences formed part of the same event.
(6) In this Act—
“conduct” includes an act or an omission;
“Northern Ireland affairs” means—(a) the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, or(b) political or sectarian hostility between people in Northern Ireland;
“serious physical or mental harm” means—(a) paraplegia;(b) quadriplegia;(c) severe brain injury or damage;(d) severe psychiatric damage;(e) total blindness;(f) total deafness;(g) loss of one or more limbs;(h) severe scarring or disfigurement.
(7) For the purposes of this section it does not matter if an event or conduct occurred in Northern Ireland, in another part of the United Kingdom, or elsewhere.
PART 2
The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery
The ICRIR, the Commissioners and ICRIR officers
2 The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery
(1) The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery is established.
(2) The ICRIR is a body corporate.
(3) The ICRIR consists of—
(a)
(a) the Chief Commissioner,
(b)
(b) the Commissioner for Investigations, and
(c)
(c) between one and five other Commissioners.
(4) The principal objective of the ICRIR in exercising its functions is to promote reconciliation.
(5) The functions of the ICRIR are—
(a)
(a) to carry out reviews of deaths that were caused by conduct forming part of the Troubles (see sections 9 and 11 to 13);
(b)
(b) to carry out reviews of other harmful conduct forming part of the Troubles (see sections 10 to 13);
(c)
(c) to produce reports (“final reports”) on the findings of each of the reviews of deaths and other harmful conduct (see sections 15 to 18);
(d)
(d) to determine whether to grant persons immunity from prosecution for serious or connected Troubles-related offences other than Troubles-related sexual offences (see sections 19 to 21);
(e)
(e) to refer deaths that were caused by conduct forming part of the Troubles, and other harmful conduct forming part of the Troubles, to prosecutors (see section 25);
(f)
(f) to produce a record (the “historical record”) of deaths that were caused by conduct forming part of the Troubles (see sections 28 and 29).
(6) In exercising its functions, the ICRIR must have regard to the general interests of persons affected by Troubles-related deaths and serious injuries.
(7) At least three months before the start of each financial year, the ICRIR must—
(a)
(a) produce and publish a work plan for that year, and
(b)
(b) give a copy of the plan to the Secretary of State.
But this duty does not apply in relation to any financial year which starts before 1 April 2025.
(8) A work plan must deal with the following matters—
(a)
(a) the caseload which the ICRIR is expecting;
(b)
(b) the plans which the ICRIR has for dealing with its caseload;
(c)
(c) the plans which the ICRIR has for engaging with persons entitled to request reviews of deaths and other harmful conduct;
(d)
(d) policies which the ICRIR is planning to introduce, review or change;
(e)
(e) such other matters as the ICRIR considers appropriate.
(9) No later than six months after the end of each financial year, the ICRIR must—
(a)
(a) produce and publish an annual report in relation to that year, and
(b)
(b) give a copy of the annual report to the Secretary of State.
(10) An annual report must deal with the following matters—
(a)
(a) the finances of the ICRIR;
(b)
(b) the administration of the ICRIR;
(c)
(c) the volume of information received by the ICRIR;
(d)
(d) the number of requests for reviews that have been made;
(e)
(e) the number of final reports on the findings of reviews that have been provided to persons requesting them;
(f)
(f) the number of applications for immunity from prosecution that have been made;
(g)
(g) the number of applications for immunity from prosecution that have been decided by the immunity requests panel;
(h)
(h) the number of persons who have been granted, and the number of persons who have been refused, immunity from prosecution;
(i)
(i) progress made in producing the historical record;
(j)
(j) such other matters as the ICRIR considers appropriate.
(11) The Secretary of State may make payments or provide other resources to, or in respect of, the ICRIR in connection with the exercise of the ICRIR’s functions.
(12) Schedule 1 contains provision about the ICRIR, the Commissioners and the ICRIR officers.
(13) In this section “persons affected by Troubles-related deaths and serious injuries” means—
(a)
(a) family members of persons whose deaths were caused directly by conduct forming part of the Troubles (and the reference to those deaths has the meaning given in section 9(9)),
(b)
(b) persons who suffered serious physical or mental harm that was caused by conduct forming part of the Troubles, and
(c)
(c) family members of persons who suffered such harm and have subsequently died.
(14) In this Act “financial year”, in relation to the ICRIR, means—
(a)
(a) the period which—
(i) begins with the day on which this section comes into force, and
(ii) ends with the following 31 March; and
(b)
(b) each subsequent period of one year which ends with 31 March.
3 ICRIR officers
(1) The ICRIR may employ persons to be officers of the ICRIR.
(2) The ICRIR may make arrangements for persons to be seconded to serve as officers of the ICRIR.
(3) In employing and seconding persons, the ICRIR must ensure that (as far as it is practicable) the officers of the ICRIR include—
(a)
(a) persons who have experience of conducting criminal investigations in Northern Ireland, and
(b)
(b) persons who do not have that experience but have experience of conducting criminal investigations outside Northern Ireland.
(4) In this Act “ICRIR officers” means—
(a)
(a) the Commissioner for Investigations,
(b)
(b) the persons employed under this section, and
(c)
(c) the persons seconded under this section.
4 Actions of the ICRIR: safeguards
(1) The ICRIR must not do anything which—
(a)
(a) would risk prejudicing, or would prejudice, the national security interests of the United Kingdom,
(b)
(b) would risk putting, or would put, the life or safety of any person at risk, or
(c)
(c) would risk having, or would have, a prejudicial effect on any actual or prospective criminal proceedings in any part of the United Kingdom.
(2) In relation to something done by the ICRIR, criminal proceedings are “prospective” if, in the view of the ICRIR, the proceedings are likely to be brought within a reasonable period after that thing is done.
(3) Subsection (1)(c) does not apply to grants of immunity from prosecution by the ICRIR under section 19 (but see paragraph 3 of Schedule 5).
(4) For provision about the way in which subsection (1) operates in relation to disclosures of information, see section 30(2) to (9).
5 Full disclosure to the ICRIR
(1) A relevant authority must make available to the ICRIR such—
(a)
(a) information,
(b)
(b) documents, and
(c)
(c) other material,
as the Commissioner for Investigations...
To continue reading
Request your trial