IRA Terrorism: Compensation for Victims

Lord Caine Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Caine (Con)]

My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Bew, for his kind comments about the public history. He will know that it was certainly my intention that the historians involved would have full access to the papers, and I assume, with the welcome news that this will now go ahead, that that is still the case with the current Administration.

I also express my profound sympathy for all those whose lives were affected by terrorist atrocities during what we somewhat euphemistically refer to as the Troubles between 1966 and 1998. I place on record once again that terrorism in Northern Ireland, from whatever part of the community or political tradition it came, was always wrong and could never be justified. As somebody once put it, there was not a single injustice in Northern Ireland, either perceived or real, that warranted the taking of a single life. I totally agree with that. More than 3,500 people were killed, and we should never forget that, with many thousands more injured and maimed, and that continues to cast a very dark shadow over society today.

I also restate the enormous debt of gratitude that we all owe to those who served in Northern Ireland, be it in the police, the Armed Forces or elsewhere, to ensure that terrorism ultimately did not succeed and that the future of Northern Ireland would only ever be determined by democracy and consent, something that is at the very heart of the 1998 agreement.

Central to the discussion we are having today is the legacy of those terrorist attacks committed by the Provisional IRA as a result of the substantial support that it received from the Libyan regime of Colonel Gaddafi, all of which has been widely documented. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, for bringing this debate to the Committee today, as it is very important. Libyan support for the IRA began in the early 1970s, fell away in the late 1970s but resumed in earnest in the early to mid-1980s, as Colonel Gaddafi saw it as a means of striking at Britain, which at that time was, along with our allies in the United States, a staunch opponent of his evil regime. My noble friend Lord Empey touched on the events of 1986, when UK bases were used to launch attacks on Tripoli.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, mentioned, the support of Libya for the IRA included millions of dollars of finance, weapons and ammunition, including hundreds of AK-47 rifles, submachine guns and SAM-7 missiles, high explosives, most notably Semtex, and military training. It reached a peak with four direct arms shipments that landed on the coast of Ireland in the mid-1980s, before the interception of the “Eksund”, with its vast arsenal of weaponry, in November 1987. That interception was a pivotal moment in the history of the Troubles. It is something on which I could probably speak for at least the next hour, but in the interests of time, I shall resist.

There is no doubt, therefore, that Libyan support helped to maintain the IRA’s capacity to carry out deadly terrorist attacks across mainly Northern Ireland but also other parts of the United Kingdom, as the noble Baroness again set out, at a time when other sources of weaponry, including the United States, were drying up—that is crucial. That Libyan support came at a crucial time for the Provisional IRA. As my noble friend Lord Empey made clear, it is almost certainly the case that every IRA atrocity, from the mid-1980s up until the second ceasefire in September 1997, had a Libyan connection. It has been estimated that the shipments and support from Libya in the mid-1980s would have enabled the IRA to sustain a campaign for around 20 years—but, thankfully, other factors intervened and a political solution was eventually found.

It is, of course, therefore completely understandable that victims who suffered from the effects of the weapons and financial support for the IRA from the Gaddafi regime over many years want to see compensation. This is an issue with which the Government in which I served as an adviser, and latterly as a Minister, grappled over many years, including by asking Sir William Shawcross to conduct an internal scoping review into the matter in 2019, as has been mentioned. This was subsequently delivered a year or so later.

Without pre-empting what the Minister might say in his reply, I am aware that there are several very important legal issues arising from the use of frozen Libyan assets to compensate victims. As was outlined in a written statement on the Shawcross review in March 2021 by my right honourable friend James Cleverly, under current international law when assets are frozen they continue to belong to the designated individual or entity. He said at the time:

“Frozen assets may not be seized by the UK Government”.


Currently, in implementing financial sanctions, the UK is obliged to comply with relevant UN obligations. This does not mean, however, that there are no avenues available to seek compensation. I shall make two main—hopefully brief—points. First, I agree with my noble friend Lord Empey that the responsibility for providing compensation for the actions of the Gaddafi regime lies with the Libyan state. Can the Minister therefore set out what actions His Majesty’s Government are taking to press the Libyan authorities to address the Libyan state’s historic responsibility for the Gaddafi regime’s support for the IRA? Will the noble Lord commit to continuing in earnest the previous Government’s efforts to secure this redress, notwithstanding some of the practical difficulties—of which I am all too aware—including where actual authority in Libya might rest?

Secondly, is there not now an opportunity to take a fresh look at the issue of frozen assets, as the noble Baroness made clear? I admit that, when I was in the Northern Ireland Office, I shared the frustration of many at the rigid and perhaps overly legalistic approach adopted by colleagues in the Foreign Office. But I wonder whether the war in Ukraine has not helpfully moved the discussion forward. After all, as the Defence Minister, Luke Pollard, confirmed in March, the UK Government had to date used £2.26 billion of interest from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets to source military capabilities for Ukraine. Meanwhile, on 22 April, the Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey, confirmed that

“whether we can make any further use of the seized Russian … assets is something we are looking closely at”.—[Official Report, Commons, 22/4/25; col. 929.]

Clearly, a good deal of thought is being given within government to the commitment in the Labour manifesto to

“work with our allies to enable the seizure and repurposing”—

I emphasise that word—

“of frozen Russian state assets to support Ukraine”.

I therefore press the Minister for a similar approach to be taken in respect of the £12 billion or so of Libyan frozen assets. If it cannot be, why not?

Of course, no amount of financial compensation can ever make up for the loss of loved ones or alter the changes made to the lives of those affected by these attacks. I do know, however, not least from my own extensive engagement with victims and survivors in Northern Ireland, that recognition of the suffering felt by so many communities is terribly important.

There are, of course, several other schemes that deliver compensation for those affected by the Troubles. Very briefly, these include the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme and the Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme, legislated for by the previous Government in 2019, which since August 2021 has been delivered by the Northern Ireland Executive. Will the Minister say what conversations his Government have had with the Executive on issues of support and compensation, and is he in a position to provide an update on these schemes? If not, perhaps he or one of his colleagues would write to me on that subject.

I want to close by reiterating that it is the victims of terrorism who should always be at forefront of our thoughts. I hope that the Government continue to build on the momentum of this debate, take note of its content and return to us in good time with concrete updates on their work to secure redress for those communities that suffered so badly as a result of the Libyan regime’s support for terrorism. But let us not forget that it is those who pulled the triggers and planted the bombs who bear ultimate responsibility—in this case, the Provisional IRA. I wish the Government well in their efforts.