An “information recovery” body set up by the British government has been accused of ‘secrecy’ after it refused to provide details about its caseload.
The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) was set up under the British government’s legacy act and has responsibility for investigating all Troubles-linked cases
Many victims, and relatives of those who died during the Troubles, are strongly opposed to the ICRIR, believing it to be part of British government attempts to shield state participants from accountability.
The body, which began operating on May 1, was set up under the Conservative Party’s Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which ended all inquests and civil cases, as well as introducing conditional immunity.
Last week the Labour Party repeated a pledge to repeal the act when announcing its legislative plans at Westminster.
Former Police Ombudsman Baroness Nuala O’Loan has said the body needs to be replaced, adding that it has not “gained the confidence of victims” and “doesn’t have the powers it needs”.
However, new Secretary of State Hilary Benn has said that while the ICRIR will not be scraped, there are plans to reform how it works.
Despite being operational for almost three months, the information recovery body has failed to provide key data, including how many referrals or requests for investigations have been made by the Secretary of State and how many victims, survivors or close family members have requested probes since May 1.
Concerns were also raised last month after it emerged the new body was involved in a drive to recruit “intelligence officers” with knowledge of “Northern Ireland Terrorism” but did not mention state security agencies, which have been linked to collusion in the past.
Daniel Holder, director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, raised concerns about the lack of information about the ICRIR’s caseload.
“I would really query the secrecy here,” he said.
“I have not had any difficulty getting similar case statistics from any other legacy body – whether legacy inquests, the PSNI’s legacy teams or Police Ombudsman.
“But now a commission with ‘information recovery’ in its name seems reluctant to provide even basis statistical information on its own work.”
A spokesman for the ICRIR rejected the claim it was holding back on supplying details and said that since May it has had “contact from a wide range of people about whether we might be able to help them”.
“As we have said publicly, we are not going to get into a running commentary on the number of people that have approached us as the numbers change on a daily/weekly basis as more people approach the Commission,” the spokesman added.
“This is primarily because we respect the privacy and confidentiality of the individuals that have come forward to us, in line with our core values.”
The spokesman added that these people “want to be treated as individuals and not as case numbers” adding that the ICRIR will “provide an update as part of our annual report and accounts in September on our operations”.
