Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to the Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland establishing the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval, what discussions he had with his Irish counterpart prior to his written statement of 18 March 2020, HCWS168, on Addressing Northern Ireland Legacy Issues, on the information retrieval provisions contained in that statement.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland spoke to the Irish Government prior to the publication of the Government’s Written Ministerial Statement on 18 March 2020, in which he outlined our proposals for dealing with legacy issues.

This marked the beginning of an ongoing period of engagement with the Irish Government and other key stakeholders, on these proposals, including information retrieval. We remain committed to making progress on this important issue, whilst being sensitive to the challenging context in which we are all working.