Policy Exchange today reveals the huge £2 billion+ cost to the taxpayer of Northern Ireland Legacy Payments, Inquiries and Inquests.This sum includes an estimated £840 million – £1.4 billion of costs already incurred and an estimated £1.3 billion of costs which will be incurred in the future. These estimates are conservative. Depending on what decisions are taken by the Government, future costs could be significantly greater.

The total extent of future costs will depend upon the decisions of Government, including with regards to requests for future inquiries. One significant factor that is likely to impact this approach is the Government’s current maximalist interpretation of the rule of law, as embodied by the Human Rights Act. The Attorney General, Lord Hermer, KC, who has a background of participation in Northern Ireland litigation, including for Gerry Adams prior to his appointment, has set out his hyper-legalist approach to the law on a number of occasions, including in his Guidance on Legal Risk and in his Bingham Lecture. He recently stated that, “The new UK government will never withdraw from the ECHR or refuse to comply with judgments of the Court or requests for interim measures given in respect of the UK.”

In the Foreword to the report, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, said:

“It is rightly a priority for any government to resolve the many complex issues in Northern Ireland, not least to preserve peace going forward. But there appears to have been little consideration of what this might amount to.

This is wrong, not least when short-term penny pinching has lost the UK a £450m vaccine manufacturing plant investment from AstraZeneca. When every line of additional departmental spending must run the Treasury gauntlet, is it right that there should be no such checks on the total cost of inquiries whether concerning Northern Ireland or indeed anywhere else?

The launch of this report was covered by:

• The Times
• The Telegraph
• The Daily Mail
• The Independent
• The Express
• POLITICO’s London Playbook
• The Belfast Telegraph
• The Shropshire Star
• News Letter