My Lords, with permission, and in the unavoidable absence of my noble friend Lord Hain, I will speak to Amendment 31, upon which a vote will take place on Monday. The amendment is in his name and those of the noble
Baroness, Lady O’Loan, the noble Lord, Lord Blair, and my noble friend Lord Murphy of Torfaen. This amendment seeks to turn a terrible Bill into one that could at least act in the interests of victims, rather than the perpetrators of horrendous crimes of violence, by inserting as a method of bringing some form of justice a model based upon Operation Kenova, led by former Chief Constable Jon Boutcher. This model was referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan.
Operation Kenova has the interests of victims, survivors and their families at its core, in stark contrast to the current legislation, in which victims and survivors are barely mentioned and to which they are universally opposed, along with each and every political party in Northern Ireland, as well as the Irish Government. In Operation Kenova, there is a proven model of the way to deal effectively with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s violent past.
After his remarks on this amendment in Committee, my noble friend Lord Hain wrote a detailed letter of rebuttal to the Minister. Sadly, the Minister’s reply completely failed to rebut any of my noble friend’s arguments. While acknowledging the excellent work of Operation Kenova, the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Caine, made a number of assertions that simply do not stack up. The first was that, in some cases, a full Kenova-type investigation would not be appropriate if a family simply wanted information that could be readily found. The second was that an Operation Kenova model could not be upscaled and it would take too long to deal with the legacy case load. The third was that it would not be value for money. Each of these contentions does not stand up to scrutiny.
On the first, this circumstance has arisen with Operation Kenova, and it has been dealt with in a sensible and pragmatic way by the Kenova team, as the family requested. It is simply not an issue. Indeed, Kenova has been praised by victims’ groups precisely because of its effective truth recovery, providing information never before revealed on what actually happened to loved ones. In fact, Jon Boutcher visited a gentleman who lived quite close to me and whose son was brutally murdered. He did so before the gentleman, sadly, passed away, to explain the circumstances in which his son was murdered. That person was deeply grateful for that information and then, sadly, died some days later.
On the other contentions, I urge the Minister to take note of the independent National Police Chiefs’ Council’s review of Operation Kenova. The reviewers are recognised nationally as experts in investigations, especially homicide investigations—they deal in analysis, not assertion. On upscaling to deal with outstanding legacy cases, they said that
“the Terms of Reference … included the question as to whether Kenova might offer a ‘scalable’ model upon which to build any future Legacy Investigative capability for Northern Ireland. Having exhaustively reviewed its strategy, governance, partnerships and all facets of its operations, the review team firmly believes that Kenova would form the best possible foundation for this purpose”.
In his evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on 2 September 2020, Jon Boutcher, who leads Kenova, said that legacy cases could be addressed within “five to 10 years” because Operation Kenova has developed processes that can now carry out comprehensive investigations expeditiously, not least
because it now has unfettered access to security and police files that have hitherto been hidden. This is the considered view of a hugely experienced and highly regarded senior investigator.
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In the past, the Minister has alluded to the fact that Jon Boutcher himself said that aspects of Operation Kenova could not be scaled up. He was referring to the level of his personal engagement with families. Although that would not be feasible with a larger case load, there is no reason why the principle of quality contact with the investigation team and senior staff could not be scalable.
On value for money the NPCC said:
“The review team have identified several examples of exceptional innovation, organisational learning and national best practice which should be considered in other legacy, and similarly complex, inquiries in the future. These outstanding operating practices have undoubtedly contributed to the excellent ‘value for money’ that Kenova represents when compared with other large-scale investigations”.
But perhaps most tellingly for those who want to see legacy dealt with, with the interests of victims and survivors at its heart, the review said:
“Any future Historical Investigation Unit or similar would benefit immeasurably from building on the exceptionally strong reputation that Kenova has achieved and by adopting its leadership and investigative model throughout. Discussions with several key stakeholders, including representatives of victims’ families and survivors from all sections of the community, in fact revealed that one of the main challenges for any alternative investigative initiative in this area would be that it would inevitably risk being constantly negatively compared with Kenova, with the confidence of victims’ families and survivors being undermined as a consequence”.
In short, in Operation Kenova, there is a working model that is compliant with Article 2 of the ECHR, unlike the Bill. It is a working model that gives value for money and is scalable, as referenced in the NPCC review above. It is also a working model that has the confidence of families whose cases it has dealt with, and of Northern Ireland political parties. From his long service in Northern Ireland, the Minister will know that achieving a model backed by pretty well every victims’ group and every political party in Northern Ireland is unique. It is also a working model that is delivering on legacy, which the Bill so badly fails to do. If the Government continue to resist this amendment, which has wide cross-party and Cross-Bench support, I will put it to a vote on Monday. In that respect, I commend Amendment 31 to the House.