Powerful committee of MPs summon government official - as last resort - to get truth about ‘suppressed’ Libya-IRA report

William Shawcross was appointed as UK Special Representative on victims of Col Gaddafi-sponsored IRA terrorism in March 2019.

Mr Shawcross submitted his report to the Government in May last year, however despite persistent calls by victims and politicians, the government has refused to release it.

The late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi armed the IRA with huge amounts of weaponry, including Semtex plastic explosives used in strings of bomb attacks, such as Harrods in 1983, Enniskillen in 1987, Warrington in 1993, and London’s Docklands in 1996.Victims of the many attacks are campaigning for compensation from Libya on a par with that already paid out to American, French and German victims of terror attacks it sponsored.

In January Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh said an “intolerable delay” in publication of the Shawcross report has left victims “feeling abandoned”.  

In 2017 an inquiry by the NI Affairs Committee (NIAC) into the matter found that victims had been let down by successive governments. The committee recommended that the Government move swiftly to press Libya for compensation, however the government refused.With unrelenting pressure from victims and a growing body of Parliamentarians, including UUP peer Lord Empey, however, Mr Shawcross was appointed some two years later to assess the situation.

But after repeated requests for clarification about the report, the NIAC has now, as a last resort, formally summoned him to give evidence about his unpublished report.

NIAC Chairman Simon Hoare MP said: “Given the time that has elapsed since both the terrorist events and the submission of his Report to Government is considerable, it is not an issue that is going to go away.  There are victims who need and deserve justice. The issuing of a Summons has been very much an action of last resort agreed, unanimously, by the Committee.  All other avenues have been explored but, regrettably, to no avail.  We look forward to hearing what Mr Shawcross has to say on 24 March.” 

Committee member DUP MP Gregory Campbell said it is deeply disappointing that  the NIAC has had to summon him.

“This is an extraordinary step for the Committee to take,” he said. “In my time as a Committee member in Parliament and Stormont, there were only rare occasions when a witness had to be summoned to appear but even more a public official.

“I have no idea of the circumstances or the reluctance to either give evidence or release the report but regardless, this sends a very bizarre message to the innocent victims who with each year get fewer and many die without answers.”

In 2019 the News Letter reported that the UK government had collected £17m on over £10bn of assets linked to Col Gaddafi which are frozen in the UK under United Nations sanctions.

The information was revealed in a report by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee which had pressed the government for months to come clean on the matter.

Victims of Gaddafi-IRA terrorism previously reacted angrily to suggestions that the UK may have been profiting from the assets privately while publicly blocking their attempts to tap the assets for compensation.

In 2019 the Government revealed to MPs on the committee that since the start of the 2016-17 financial year, HMRC had collected around £17 million from the frozen Libyan assets. Approximately £5 million each year is collected.

Victims have argued that this money could easily be used to pay their compensation.

Libya-IRA terror: Victims’ lawyer rejects Libyan claims that its investments in UK settled compensation for IRA victims

‘Secret’ Blair-Libya deal stinks, says Lord Empey

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