Chris-Heaton Harris moves to assuage concerns over Legacy Bill 'amnesty'

The NI Secretary was commenting in response to cross-party scathing criticism of the government’s Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill – designed to bring an end to Troubles legacy prosecutions, inquests and civil actions.

One aspect of the controversial proposals is the establishment of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The commission will have a ‘truth recovery’ function, and the ability to conduct investigations “where it judges that to be appropriate”.

Critics of the new legislation – including almost all victims’ groups and all of the main political parties in Northern Ireland – say it will rob bereaved families of justice by providing an amnesty for perpetrators in return for information about terrorist killings.

Many of those opposed to the bill also fear it will be used as a platform for terrorist apologists to attempt to justify the murder of their loved ones in a public forum.

In an attempt to address some of those concerns, Mr Heaton-Harris highlighted the “penalty” for not cooperating fully with the ICRIR.

“As things stand the commission we will set up comes into function on May 1 this year, and obviously it is not going to be ready to conduct any investigations or anything like that,” he told the Irish Times in an interview during a trip to the US.

“I want to get cross government consent to change that a bit. Also there is no statute of limitations in this bill.

"We want to make sure that if you do not co-operate and then you are found to have done something heinous in the Troubles and then you go through the judicial system as it is now, so there is a penalty.”

Mr Heaton-Harris added: "If you perjure or lie to the commission then there are penalties that are commensurate with that.”

Mr Heaton-Harris said he had briefed a number of US politicians on proposed amendments to the bill, and said this is “the last time the British government will look at anything in this legacy space and incumbent on me to get it right”.