Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Fletcher Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Tom Randall (Gedling) (Con)]

What assessment he has made of progress on implementing the payment scheme for victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

[Mark Fletcher (Bolsover) (Con)]

What assessment he has made of progress on implementing the payment scheme for victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

[The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Brandon Lewis)]

We welcome the formal designation of the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland to provide administrative support for the scheme. Victims should never have had to go to court to see such progress. The Executive must now move to ensure that the scheme can be opened as soon as is practical, so that applications can be processed and payments made to victims who have already waited too long. The implementation of the scheme, including timescales for delivery, is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive, but I look forward to seeing them progress this issue as quickly as possible.

--- Later in debate ---

[Brandon Lewis]

My hon. Friend is right. I have consistently expressed my disappointment—to say the least—at the lack of progress in establishing the scheme, as have the First Minister and others. It was wrong for Sinn Féin to hold up the process of designating the Department. I am pleased that it has now happened, but it is a shame that it took a court case.

[Mark Fletcher]

Last week, Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson described victims of the troubles applying for the victims’ payment scheme as

“mainly…those who fought Britain’s dirty war”

or were

“involved in collusion.”

Will my right hon. Friend join me in condemning those grossly insulting comments to the victims, many of whom live in my constituency?

[Brandon Lewis]

The simple answer is yes. Particularly with people having waited so long, to see an insensitive, ill-advised and inappropriate comment like that was the last thing that anybody needed. It should never have been made in the first place, and we should all condemn it and move forward to make sure that victims get what they have morally and legally been waiting far too long for.