MPs have voted to remove a measure providing conditional immunity from prosecutions for Troubles-era crimes from the previous Conservative government’s legacy act.The controversial clause had already been found to be unlawful and was opposed by Northern Ireland parties and victims’ groups.It would have enabled anyone to avoid prosecution for offences related to the Troubles, if they had provided information about unresolved cases.Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said whatever the previous legislation’s intentions, it had “fundamentally failed”.MPs were also asked to support scrapping the bar on future legacy compensation cases.Benn said the last government had chosen to legislate to give amnesty to both veterans and perpetrators on the basis of drawing a line under the past, but that by doing so they had caused a lack of “trust” with all communities in Northern Ireland.He brought what is a known as a remedial order to the Commons on Wednesday evening, with MPs voting by 373 to 106 in favour of it.Separately, the Labour government is in the process of repealing the previous legacy act and replacing it with new legislation, which is currently going through Parliament.It includes a new legacy commission, born out of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), which will have independent oversight.The government said the deal involved a package of protections for veterans, including “a protection in old age”.Some backbench Tory MPs have called on the government to provide immunity from prosecution for those who served in the armed forces.But Sinn Féin’s vice-president and, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, said she was “concerned” by any suggestion that the government could renege on commitments to victims and survivors, if it gave veterans special treatment in new legislation.Benn told MPs the government did not agree with immunity “as a matter of princip …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnMPs have voted to remove a measure providing conditional immunity from prosecutions for Troubles-era crimes from the previous Conservative government’s legacy act.The controversial clause had already been found to be unlawful and was opposed by Northern Ireland parties and victims’ groups.It would have enabled anyone to avoid prosecution for offences related to the Troubles, if they had provided information about unresolved cases.Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said whatever the previous legislation’s intentions, it had “fundamentally failed”.MPs were also asked to support scrapping the bar on future legacy compensation cases.Benn said the last government had chosen to legislate to give amnesty to both veterans and perpetrators on the basis of drawing a line under the past, but that by doing so they had caused a lack of “trust” with all communities in Northern Ireland.He brought what is a known as a remedial order to the Commons on Wednesday evening, with MPs voting by 373 to 106 in favour of it.Separately, the Labour government is in the process of repealing the previous legacy act and replacing it with new legislation, which is currently going through Parliament.It includes a new legacy commission, born out of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), which will have independent oversight.The government said the deal involved a package of protections for veterans, including “a protection in old age”.Some backbench Tory MPs have called on the government to provide immunity from prosecution for those who served in the armed forces.But Sinn Féin’s vice-president and, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, said she was “concerned” by any suggestion that the government could renege on commitments to victims and survivors, if it gave veterans special treatment in new legislation.Benn told MPs the government did not agree with immunity “as a matter of princip …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
