Over 1,000 claims in the pipeline against the UK state over Troubles incidents it is revealed
There are currently over 1,000 claims against the UK state over Troubles-related incidents.
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) revealed the figure in answer to a question from independent peer Baroness Hoey.
She told the News Letter that the sheer volume of cases will lead to “a huge bill for the taxpayer”.
The news comes after a couple of Troubles claims against the state hit the headlines last month (more on these below).
Baroness Hoey, a former Labour MP from Newtownabbey, had submitted a parliamentary question about the NIO, asking “how many outstanding pre-1998 legacy cases in the form of civil suits and re-opened inquests are in train at present?”.
The NIO responded: “There are over a thousand ongoing legacy civil claims against the NIO and other state agencies.”
The News Letter then contacted the NIO directly to learn more.
It responded that 600 of those 1,000-plus cases are against the NIO itself, with the rest being against other state agencies.
The NIO further said the 600 claims against it “are for compensation in cases involving various paramilitary bombings and attacks and internment cases in which there are allegations of state failings”.
Finally, on the issue of the costs, the NIO said that “the total cost in damages paid by NIO in such cases in the previous five years has amounted to £50,000”.
Baroness Hoey told the News Letter: “The numbers of civil legacy claims still to be decided will mean a huge bill for the taxpayer in the future.
“On top of the £250m budget for the ICRIR, the decision of the secretary of state to remove the parts in the legacy act stopping future Troubles civil suits is likely to run to hundreds of millions of pounds.
“We all know that hardly anyone from the IRA will end up in prison, and the only likely outcome is the continued use of collusion allegations against decent members of the police or Army.”
DUP MLA Stephen Dunne, who sits on the assembly justice committee, said: “These figures represent the attempt by some to rewrite history.
“Well over 90% of the murders and injuries caused during the troubles in Northern Ireland were caused by acts of terrorism.
“Very few prosecutions and investigations are under way and innocent victims are being left behind, with thousands of unsolved cases.
“The focus should always be on bringing the perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice, and ensuring those innocent victims left behind are supported by the state.”
One prominent legacy case which was in the news last month was a furore over the fact former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams could be entitled to a payout over his detention in the 1970s.
The payout could happen if the Labour government insists on repealing parts of the legacy act dealing with internment claims.
The BBC has estimated that the payout could be as high as six figures.
In another case, the brother of a joyrider who was killed nearly 50 years ago reached a compensation settlement by the government.
John Savage, 17, was shot in Belfast in 1976. He was one of three youths in the car, which had been hijacked at gunpoint.
The stolen vehicle was reportedly driven at paratroopers after they signalled for it to stop, and one soldier said he saw a gun in the car.
Years later, the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team concluded that the weapon used in the hijacking had been an imitation pistol, not a real one.
His brother sued the MoD for alleged breaches of human rights; the details of the compensation settlement last month have not been revealed.
In addition, an inquest into the 1992 deaths of four IRA men concluded last week that it was “not reasonable” for the SAS to have shot them.
The four dead men were Kevin Barry O’Donnell, 21, Sean O’Farrell, 23, Peter Clancy, 19, and Daniel Vincent, 20.
They were making their getaway after staging an attack on Coalisland RUC station using a heavy machine gun mounted on a lorry when soldiers from the SAS surprised them in a church car park in Clonoe, east Tyrone.
The ruling raised the possibility that criminal cases may be mounted against the soldiers involved in the future.