Reacting to comments by the Northern Ireland Victims’ Commissioner Judith Thompson about the lack of proactivity by Government in regard to the current NIO legacy consultation, Ulster Unionist MLA, Mike Nesbitt said:
“This may well be the most important public consultation since the 1998 Agreement, but unlike 20 years ago, the NIO is making almost no effort to engage the public.
“It is imperative that people understand these proposals include establishing a new police force to run in parallel with the PSNI, with the same powers of arrest, detention and the rest, yet they will ignore the needs of the 47,000 who were injured as a result of the Troubles. It would be unimaginable that the PSNI could adopt a policy of only investigating road traffic incidents that resulted in fatalities and slammed the investigative door on the injured, but that is exactly what is proposed for the Historical Investigations Unit.
“The pubic still have time to make their views known and I encourage them to do so now. It is not necessary to answer every question. It is perfectly acceptable to simply post an overarching comment at the end of the questionnaire.
“The closing date for submitting responses is Monday 10 September 2018 which is just six over weeks away. It can be completed online at: https://consultations.nidirect.gov.uk/nio-legal-policy-branch/07df6f91/consultation/intro/ “