Troubles civil claims a green-field site for lawyers, Boutcher tells MPs

The “attritional” approach of security agencies in dealing with Troubles compensation claims is creating a “green-field site for lawyers”, Jon Boutcher has said.

The PSNI Chief Constable told MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that the force had paid out more than twice as much to lawyers as it did to victims in civil claims over a six-year period.

Mr Boutcher said the PSNI’s annual cost of dealing with legacy issues was the equivalent of around 400 police officers.

The committee heard evidence from the Chief Constable as part of its investigation into how the Government is addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland.

Under the Legacy Act introduced by the previous UK government, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), has taken on the responsibility from the PSNI to carry out investigations into deaths and serious harm related to the Troubles which occurred between January 1 1966 and April 10 1998.

However, MPs were told that the Act had not diminished legacy costs for the force, and may actually increase them.

Mr Boutcher said when policing powers were devolved to Stormont, there was no agreement over how legacy investigations would be funded within the police.

He said: “We have a legacy investigation branch that was the successor unit to the HET (Historical Enquiries Team).

“That unit cost £5.3 million a year to fund.

“We also have ongoing civil cases. That’s over £3 million a year it costs to deal with those cases.”

The Chief Constable added: “Between 2018 and 2024, the PSNI resolved 30 challenging civil cases. In those cases we paid out to families, claimants, victims, a total of £25 million, which we are not funded for.

“Of that £25 million, I am told that £7.3 million went to the victims, the claimants themselves; £17.7 million went to the lawyers.

“Because we have this attritional approach to legacy by all the security agencies around information disclosure and provision, it creates a green-field site for lawyers.

“This is public money. It is public money that the PSNI is not funded for.

“That is taking money from contemporary policing.”

Mr Boutcher said the PSNI cannot do all that it wants to do because of resources dedicated to legacy claims.

He said: “Some of the figures around what we are spending now, year on year it varies, we are spending just over £20 million a year – that would be around 400 police officers.

“We have been left with this millstone, this anchor, which holds the PSNI back because families, victims, on all sides of the different victims’ profiles, see that lack of action as our fault, our responsibility.

“We are trying to design a plan now to go to the Secretary of State, go to the Executive and try and make sure they don’t just think about the ICRIR, they think about moving society in Northern Ireland forward by trying to help the PSNI do what we were never intended to do, dealing with these legacy issues.

“It is a considerable burden on us.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Claire McGuigan told the committee that the only legacy funding the force had received was from the Department of Justice to help with inquests.

She said: “The PSNI has had to find the funding from our own budgets to deal with that (legacy).

“Over the seven years, if you look at investigations we have done, if you look at civil actions in terms of resourcing them and the compensation, it has cost around £126 million.

“That’s quite a significant amount of money.”

She added: “Nothing has stopped because of the Legacy Act, we still have investigations to continue, we still have the civil claims, we still have over 1,100 civil claims to deal with.

“We don’t have anywhere near the resources to actually resource and deal with those.

“Nor do we have the money to settle them.

“We are in a position that is very difficult and it doesn’t build trust with the community because it looks like we are stalling, we are taking too long to do these things.

“We simply don’t have the resources. To get the resources I would have to take more out of contemporary policing.”

Ms McGuigan said: “Nothing has stopped with the Legacy Act but the provisions within it are likely to put statutory obligations on to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

“With that and public inquiries that are legacy related, I think we are looking at another £4-£5 million on top of what we are currently spending.”