Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the capacity of the Ulster Defence Association and other loyalist gangs to commit crimes in Northern Ireland.

The Ulster Defence Association and other loyalist groupings remain proscribed under Schedule 2 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland recently confirmed that the Assessment of Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland, published in October 2015, remains current. You may wish to refer to the assessment in conjunction with the Second Report of the Independent Reporting Commission, published in November 2019, for an up to date assessment of the capacity of the Ulster Defence Association and other loyalist groupings in Northern Ireland. The Independent Reporting Commission was established to monitor the progress of the Northern Ireland Executive’s programme of work to end paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.

For your convenience, links to both of these reports are provided below:

Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland - 19 October 2015

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/469548/Paramilitary_Groups_in_Northern_Ireland_-_20_Oct_2015.pdf

Second Report of the Independent Reporting Commission - 4 November 2019

https://www.ircommission.org/sites/irc/files/media-files/IRC%20-%202nd%20Report%202019_0.pdf