Speeches by Benn.

“Yes, I’ve got it.”

“It just takes a moment to register; that is all.”

“It is all going to depend on the facts and the circumstances of the individual case; there is no getting away from it. I cannot give a blanket assurance in respect to all of the cases that will come before the commission and have to be considered. Obviously, this issue is currently the subject of live proceedings that …”

“If you are talking about “embarrassing”, I do not think being embarrassed is a national security problem. Q284   Claire Hanna: I would argue that it is; there is information about very squalid practices by paramilitary organisations and the state, and I think it is embarrassment, rather than national security…”

“Well, it said quite a lot. But, anyway, we are expecting, in the not-too-distant future, the final report of Operation Kenova—because that was an interim one, of course.”

“Yes, I—”

“Pardon?”

“I am only too aware of the history, but that is the first point: no Minister can pass to anyone else responsibility for the protection of life and national security. We have to be quite clear about that, and that is something that all Governments recognise, as far as I am aware. Secondly, we are making a number of chan…”

“The first thing I would say is that all Ministers have responsibility for national security. I cannot think of a state in the world, and that includes Ireland—”

“We will find it out and send it to you, if that is okay.”

“This is the case currently, and that is another misunderstanding about the current ICRIR. It already has the capacity, if it encounters evidence that it might think capable of leading to prosecution, to pass that over to the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland, and the Public Prosecution Service looks at tha…”

“I have not got that figure with me.”

“That goes in, but there will be a work programme going forward, and that will have to involve some additional resources, depending on the number of cases it gets, because this is demand-led.”

“I would not say it resets its budget. There is a sum of money that we inherited previously—”

“I know from my discussions with the commission that it is working hard with the 100 or so cases that it is already dealing with to go through that process and start producing reports for families. We know that many families have decided not to engage with the commission because they objected to the legacy Act and, in p…”

“There certainly will, because with the commission as it is now and with the commission as it will be reformed by the troubles Bill, any incident relating to the troubles anywhere in the United Kingdom can be referred into the commission. The M62 coach bombing, the Kingsmill massacre and the Warrenpoint massacre are all…”

“On the first issue that the right hon. Gentleman raises, for anyone who was serving a sentence for a troubles-related offence, part of the Good Friday agreement was that they were released after two years. The people of Northern Ireland voted for that by about 70%. It was part of the agreement. On his second point, the…”

“I have had many such discussions, as I indicated in my statement to the House yesterday, and those have informed the package of veterans protections contained in the Bill, which the Government have set out.”

“The provisions that apply exclusively and only to service personnel are: first, the arrangements to prevent cold calling—a protocol will be agreed with the commission in relation to that—and secondly, not being required to rehearse the history when the Ministry of Defence would be perfectly capable of providing that in…”

“It certainly does make it more important, because it is a piece of legislation that has not worked and did not command support in Northern Ireland. If legislation is passed in this House that does not command support in Northern Ireland, how on earth can we expect the answers that families are seeking, which the right …”