King’s Speech

Baroness O'Loan Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness O'Loan (CB)]

My Lords, I will make just two points. First, I welcome the commitment in the gracious Speech to process the Hillsborough Bill, creating a duty of candour for public servants. As His Majesty said,

“the highest standards of trust in public office are essential for the social contract and the United Kingdom’s collective security”.

I acknowledge the import of the risks to our national security that were identified by the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller. Massive risks continue to be managed. We must find a way to accommodate accountability and transparency while protecting our national security. The two are not mutually exclusive.

The Bill could allow the security and intelligence services to avoid even admitting that they hold information relevant to a criminal investigation or public inquiry, on grounds of national security. However, our security services rely on co-operation from many ordinary people and there is need to maintain that level of support and to work out what information needs to be protected and what is no longer in absolute need of protection and can be revealed either in full or through a protective process.

That brings me to my second point. His Majesty’s Government promised to repeal the widely rejected Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 which caused such great distress to victims, but they have now stepped back. They have proposed a reformed legacy commission, reconstituted from the ICRIR. The ICRIR has 275 staff, fewer than half of whom are investigators. It has some wonderful staff who know what they should be able to do, but the ICRIR does not have the investigatory powers that over 600 public authorities have, including the Care Quality Commission, the Food Standards Agency and all UK local authorities. They were removed from the Bill by the Conservative Government at the later stages of the Bill’s process through the House. The ICRIR has no powers to access telecommunications data, although the Gambling Commission and the Health and Safety Executive have them. It does not have power to access financial data. The Bill before the other place does not confer these powers on the proposed legacy commission.

A highly critical report on the ICRIR was published last week which identified significant problems. The commission is approaching the end of its second year. It has spent some £65 million and has not produced a single report. For the new legacy commission to gain the confidence of the people it must be a new, properly empowered investigative commission. There will be few prosecutions, but the investigators must have the powers to which I have referred. They are investigating heinous crimes, including the Guildford pub bombings, the M62 coach bombing in Yorkshire and the murders of civilians, RUC and Army officers and a judge. One person was told recently that, although the ICRIR might have some forensic evidence, it does not have a forensic scientist to examine it. That is truly shocking.

Consideration of any case must involve examining all available material, any secret reports, et cetera, then using modern investigative techniques. Only if that is done will the legacy commission gain the confidence and trust of the people who lost loved ones in the Troubles. As many veterans from the police and the Army who served so honourably have said, “We don’t want special treatment, we just want fairness”. That fairness will include acknowledgment by the state of the situations in which it got things wrong or failed to act to prevent crime. Such candour must be required of all organisations of the state.

Significant amendments will be required to the Bill currently before the other House if Northern Ireland is to have a legacy commission which is strong, truly independent, has the powers to carry out effective investigation, treats suspects in accordance with the law and respects their rights and those of the many victims of the Troubles. Can the Minister assure us that the new commission will have the powers that it needs?