Speeches by Hanna.

“The court has found that the processes are not currently, and the new regime is not in place—”

“But can you understand, given that successive courts have said and acknowledged that the current processes are not compliant, that you could retrospectively have challenges from families whose cases have been progressed under the current procedures?”

“I think colleagues are going to come back on the issues around disclosure and commissioners. Given that the Court of Appeal has found that in the current form, some of your investigations are not Article 2-compliant, particularly around disclosure and next of kin participation, do you accept that in this context—where …”

“I am hoping to get into some of the experience that you have gained through this and other processes and how it can be applied going forward. In your submission to us, you outline a number of reforms that you think could improve ICRIR’s effectiveness. Have the Government engaged with you effectively? Are there headline…”

“Thank you very much for coming before us. I accept that we are all trying to move forward and shape a regime, or a set of processes, that can get people the unvarnished truth, as you say. I am not going to look backwards, but I hope you will acknowledge that referring to critiques as unwarranted criticism, when a numbe…”

“We are though.”

“I was trying to understand how widespread it is, but we have loads of ground to cover.”

“I am trying to get a sense of how many are being declared and how broad this is. I hear and understand your alternative perspective, but I am sure you can understand the anxiety that people have. In terms of creating confidence in a new body—which already has some substantial deficiencies—I am trying to understand how …”

“I am talking about investigators and staff.”

“How many declarations, or potential conflicts of interest, have been made? Do any of those correspond to point 10 of your conflict-of-interest policy?”

“They do exist, though.”

“I suppose I would just say that there is no record of the political analysis of the security services being conducive to truth and reconciliation in our region. Their political analysis should not be elevated above the needs of those families and their lawful rights to information.”

“And not just Jon—Kenova’s current leadership as well.”

“But we have had witnesses in the very recent past, including from Kenova, who gave a different account and a different character to their engagement on disclosure—on the information that they were able to access and disclose.”

“I think we can give examples that are a lot more recent than 20 years ago of relevant material not being disclosed.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I suppose it has been characterised in different ways by other bodies and others, in terms of their engagement on some of those matters, but I will leave it there.”

“I regularly receive representations from businesses, some of our biggest employers, who are frustrated by the apprenticeship levy. They pay in like businesses in Britain, but cannot access the fund to reinvest in skills and fix our broken skills pipeline. Does the Secretary of State agree that there is merit in devolvi…”

“I will come back to you on other practical implications if time allows, but do you think the Joint Committee and others have had sufficient interest and focus on this? Has there been sufficient engagement with civil society organisations and others mapping and following all of this?”

“This is an illustrative example of my concern that, while it is really important that all necessary efforts are made to mitigate the impact on business and consumers in Northern Ireland, particularly due to the movement of goods, that risks overlooking some of the non-trade impacts of Brexit, including the many disrupt…”