Baroness Suttie (LD)

My Lords, I too thank the Minister for taking questions on the report from the Robert Hamill inquiry, which was published a month ago. I pay tribute to the family of Robert Hamill, who have waited so long—nearly 30 years—and with such dignity for the publication of this report. To lose a family member, a young 25 year-old father of three children, in such an appalling and brutal sectarian attack is something that no family should ever have to bear. I sincerely hope that, with the publication of this report, the family feel that they now have some of the answers to the many questions about what happened on that night. Can the Minister say how the family of Robert Hamill have been supported and whether they continue to be supported following the publication of this report? It is understandable that the report could not be published when it was completed in 2011, because of ongoing prosecutions, but it remains extremely hard to understand why the prosecution of three individuals took until June 2024—27 years after this brutal murder. This additional delay until the prosecution, in 2024, of the RUC officer Robert Atkinson for his role in perverting the course of justice must have caused the family a great deal of additional stress. It is important to emphasise that the vast majority of RUC officers served their country well and in the most challenging circumstances. Without their bravery and commitment, many more people would have died. But it is equally right that where crimes are committed because of failures of police investigations or incidents are covered up that result in justice being denied, these are acknowledged, those responsible are prosecuted and lessons are learned. How do the Government intend to act on the lessons learned from the report on the cost, timescales and implementation of the recommendations from this inquiry? I fully appreciate that this will primarily be a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive, the Justice Minister and the PSNI, but can the Minister say whether she expects lessons learned to feed into the wider government approach to dealing with the past? Since this report was published, we have witnessed an extremely unfortunate escalation of tensions, which have a deep cost to the people of Northern Ireland, both politically and financially. I do not believe this is wanted by the ordinary people of Northern Ireland, who do not want to see a return to the level of tensions that we saw prior to 1998 and the events laid out in this report. There was a Statement on these matters in the House of Commons this evening from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and we will no doubt return to these issues later this week, but this report should serve as a reminder of a past to which surely none of us ever wishes to return.