Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by the Victims Commissioner to provide payments to the relatives of those killed during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Government fully recognises the terrible loss of those bereaved through Troubles-related incidents. Support for victims is a devolved matter for consideration by a restored Northern Ireland Executive. It is right that a restored Executive considers how best to acknowledge and support people who have lost loved ones during the Troubles.

This Government has always made clear, in successive manifestos, that it will never accept any moral equivalence between those who defended democracy and the rule of law in Northern Ireland, and those who sought to destroy both.