Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have conducted any further assessment of the Provisional IRA’s Amy Council, including its influence on the political direction of Sinn Féin and its access to weapons, since they published their Assessment of Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland in October 2015.

The ‘Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland’ report was published in 2015 by the UK Government in order to provide a one-off factual assessment from the UK security agencies and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on the structure, role and purpose of paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland. This public assessment, which was intended to inform the then ongoing cross-party talks, has not been repeated.

Although it is acknowledged that some individuals engaged in serious criminality may also have ties to former paramilitary Republican organisations, such activity does not present a threat to national security.

The PSNI and UK security agencies continually assess the threat, risk and harm posed by paramilitary, terrorist and organised crime groups to inform the most appropriate operational response. The threat from Northern Ireland Related Terrorism (NIRT) is assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), after MI5 passed over responsibility earlier this year. JTAC keeps the Threat Level in Northern Ireland from NIRT under constant review and formally reviews it twice a year. However, the threat is wholly driven by violent Dissident Republicans who reject the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), and not by Groups that support the GFA.

Where any criminality exists, the Government is clear that it should be dealt with fully by the police.