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The families of more than 70 people killed by the IRA and other paramilitaries in unsolved attacks on English soil can once again hope for justice under the new Northern Ireland Troubles bill, the UK government has claimed.
As MPs in the House of Commons prepared to debate the bill for the first time on Tuesday, the Home Office said there remained 77 unsolved killings, including 39 British armed forces personnel in English towns and cities, from the time of the Troubles. It said more than 1,000 people were injured in the attacks.
Until now much of the focus of discussion about the bill has been the possible impact it may have on former and current British service personnel who could face legal proceedings over incidents that happened decades ago.
But the UK government is keen to stress that if its new bill becomes law, it opens up the possibility of justice – or at least answers – for families who lost loved ones dating back half a century.
The security minister, Dan Jarvis, said: “The last government’s Legacy Act shut down police investigations and proposed immunity for terrorists. This left many families feeling they had nowhere to go to continue their search for justice, or simply for answers about what happened to their loved ones.”
Jarvis, a former member of the Parachute regiment who served in Northern Ireland, continued: “This government’s legislation will put that right. It guarantees no terrorist will be able to claim immunity from prosecution, while ensuring there is an effective and wholly independent legacy commission to conduct investigations that families right across the United Kingdom can have confidence in.”
The UK government says that if measures in its new Troubles bill become law, a reformed legacy commission would have enhanced powers enabling it to conduct full police investigations, where there is evidence of criminality. The immunity scheme would also be scrapped.
The Home Office said unsolved Troubles-related attacks on English soil ranged from the 1974 M62 coach bombing when 12 people were killed and 38 injured to the 1996 Manchester bombing in which more than 200 people were hurt.
Graeme Downie, the MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, whose friend Tim Parry was killed aged 12 in the Warrington bomb attacks in 1993, said families who lost loved ones should still have the chance for answers.
He said: “I don’t know what happened that day in Warrington in 1993 other than someone I was friends with and played football with every week had been killed. I don’t know precisely who did it. There was talk of a rogue IRA unit but no answers.
“I don’t seek revenge and I don’t think the Parry family ever expect to get justice, but I do want answers and so do hundreds of others.”
He said if the new legislation helped just one family it would be worthwhile.
Mo Norton, the sister of bombardier Terence Griffin, who was killed in the M62 coach bombing aged 24, said: “He served two tours in Northern Ireland, and it was conflict that took him – not on the battlefield, but on a coach returning from leave.
“He was proud of his service, but never boastful. He had plans – hopes for the future. That morning, everything changed. Twelve lives were lost, including children. Our family was shattered. There was no warning, no chance to say goodbye. Just silence, and then years of unanswered questions.
“I need to know that Terence’s death has been fully investigated, I don’t think it has been properly investigated in the past.”
