Northern Ireland veterans have warned that former soldiers could face years of legal uncertainty under Labour’s plans to overhaul the system for investigating crimes committed during the Troubles.
Al Carns, a former Armed Forces minister who served for 24 years in the Royal Marines, has backed a new report by the Policy Exchange think tank arguing that soldiers who served during the conflict risk being assessed according to human-rights standards developed decades after the events in question.
The report argues that Labour’s proposed Northern Ireland Troubles Bill could leave veterans facing further investigations, uncertainty and potential prosecution many years after their service.
Speaking in Belfast last week, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the legislation would return to Parliament in the autumn.
The government is seeking to replace parts of the 2023 Legacy Act, introduced by the previous Conservative administration. The legislation offered conditional immunity to perpetrators of certain Troubles-related offences in return for co-operation with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, which was established to oversee investigations.
Labour has introduced a new Bill to overhaul the framework. MPs have already voted to repeal the conditional immunity provisions and remove a bar on future legacy compensation cases, although the legislation remains under consideration.
Carns, writing the foreword to the Policy Exchange report, argued that veterans should be subject to the law while being protected from indefinite investigations.
“No soldier should be above the law. Equally, no soldier should face endless legal jeopardy,” he wrote.
“Accountability is not the same as perpetual investigation. Justice is not served when the process itself becomes the punishment.
“That is why this paper matters. It gives voice to men who were there, making decisions almost impossible to recreate 40 or 50 years later.”
The issue has also drawn support from Labour peer Lord Maurice Glasman, who warned that the prospect of prosecutions against elderly veterans could have implications for military morale and recruitment.
“We owe a debt of great gratitude to the veterans of the SAS who served in the long deployment in Northern Ireland,” he wrote.
“They served with great courage and honour in extremely dangerous and violent conditions.
“It is a breach of our military covenant that veterans are investigated and prosecuted in their old age because of an understanding of the law that did not exist when they were active.”
The government has rejected the suggestion that its proposed reforms would expose veterans to unnecessary or repeated investigations, while arguing that the existing Legacy Act failed to provide adequate answers to victims’ families.
A Government spokesperson said: “We are immensely proud of our armed forces, and all those who served to protect life and defeat terrorism during the Troubles.
“There is no question of needless repeat investigations or of any veteran being prosecuted for having followed the rules.
“The Legacy Act offered immunity to IRA, UVF and other terrorists, responsible for the overwhelming majority of Troubles-related deaths.
“It left our veterans exposed.
“And it left over 1,000 families of murdered UK civilians and soldiers without answers.
“The Troubles Bill aims to fix that broken system, with the reformed Legacy Commission becoming the primary route for families to get the answers they are entitled to.
“There was no equivalence between the lawful service of our veterans and the sickening deliberate actions of the terrorists.
“We will make that clear in the Bill, and introduce a package of new, effective and lawful protections for our former service personnel.”
The dispute highlights the continuing difficulty of establishing a legal framework for the legacy of the Troubles that can balance the interests of victims and their families with the rights of former service personnel.
The conflict ended more than two decades ago, but investigations into incidents dating back several decades continue to generate political and legal controversy.
For veterans’ groups, the central concern is that former soldiers could remain subject to investigation long after their service, while the government argues that families affected by killings should retain a credible route to information and justice.
Labour’s decision to bring its legislation back to Parliament in the autumn is likely to renew scrutiny of how those competing objectives can be reconciled.
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