Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery

Lord Reid of Cardowan Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord will be aware that I cannot comment on anything to do with the archive. As to the matter he raises, it is currently a matter of ongoing court proceedings.

[Lord Reid of Cardowan (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Elliott, for his helpful Question, which allows me to reply. Would the Minister confirm to the House—if it needs confirmation—that the conduct of investigations and prosecutions in Northern Ireland, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, was under the exclusive control of the police service, the prosecution service and the courts, and that Ministers had no locus, no power and no desire to interfere with that process? Will she accept that the transition from war to peace is not always easy and that what Ministers did, accompanied by the work of people such as Lord Trimble and John Hume, was to persevere in a political peace process, whatever the odds, which has resulted in inestimable benefits for all the people in Northern Ireland?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My noble friend, as ever, makes a series of excellent points. He is absolutely right. He knows better than I do, as he served our country in government in numerous roles at Cabinet level, that the police have complete operational independence. We owe all those who operated as politicians in Northern Ireland and the UK Government and who worked so hard in the most difficult of circumstances to deliver peace a huge debt of gratitude. Every day, we now have to live up to the promise of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement and the spirit of the Stormont House agreement to make sure the people of Northern Ireland and Great Britain have the peace that was so difficultly earned.