Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick
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On-the-Runs Scheme
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Mrs Villiers
We have to bear in mind that deployment and disclosure of information in relation to these individual cases needs to be handled with the greatest care, because any disclosure presents risks in relation to future prosecutions. That is probably one of the reasons why the information came out at the time that it did. So we need to reflect carefully on these matters. It did come out in an unfortunate way; I reiterate the apology I made earlier to the family for how they learned of this matter, but we all need to take care on the disclosure of information about this scheme, because none of us would want to be responsible for the collapse of a future trial.
Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down) (SDLP)
I am reflecting and thinking of the O’Connor family from Newry today. Will the Secretary of State confirm, notwithstanding the content of the Hallett report, that no further errors will be revealed?
Mrs Villiers
No, I am afraid that I cannot give that confirmation. The Hallett report was clear in its conclusions about the management of the scheme: it was not properly managed and the risk was not properly managed. Anyone reading the Hallett report must expect that further errors will come to light. As I told the House earlier, Lady Justice Hallett highlighted 36 further cases as ones where the risk of error is higher than in others. That is one reason why nobody should be relying on these letters; because of the errors in the way the scheme was managed, it is likely that other errors will come to light.