Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023

16 Consultation on reports

(1) In the case of a review of a death or of other harmful conduct carried out following a request made under section 9 or 10, the Chief Commissioner must, before producing the final report—

(a) give a draft of the report to the person who requested the review; and

(b) allow the person to make representations about the report during the applicable response period.

(2) In the case of a review of a death carried out following a request made under section 9 or following a decision made by the ICRIR under section 12(2), the Chief Commissioner must, before producing the final report—

(a) give a draft of the report to—

(i) any relevant family members of the person to whose death the review relates,

(ii) any relevant family members of any other persons killed in the relevant event, and

(iii) any person who suffered serious physical or mental harm in the relevant event or, where such a person has subsequently died, any relevant family members of the person, and

(b) allow those persons to make representations about the report during the applicable response period.

(3) In the case of a review of other harmful conduct carried out following a request made under section 10 or following a decision made by the ICRIR under section 12(3), the Chief Commissioner must, before producing the final report—

(a) give a draft of the report to—

(i) any relevant family members of any persons killed in the relevant event, and

(ii) any person who suffered serious physical or mental harm in the relevant event or, where such a person has subsequently died, any relevant family members of the person, and

(b) allow those persons to make representations about the report during the applicable response period.

(4) In the case of any review, if it is proposed to include in the final report material criticising an individual, the Chief Commissioner must, before producing the report—

(a) give a copy of that material to the individual; and

(b) allow the individual to make representations about that material during the applicable response period.

(5) In the case of any review, if it is proposed to include in the final report material criticising a public authority, the Chief Commissioner must, before producing the report—

(a) give a copy of that material to the public authority or to a person who, in the Chief Commissioner’s view, currently has responsibility for the public authority; and

(b) allow that public authority or person to make representations about that material during the applicable response period.

(6) The Chief Commissioner must not produce the final report until after—

(a) any applicable response period has ended, or

(b) all of the applicable response periods have ended (where two or more persons are consulted and those periods end on different days).

(7) If the Chief Commissioner considers that it would not be in the public interest for material included in a draft of the report to appear in the final report, the Chief Commissioner may exclude that material from the final report.

(8) The Chief Commissioner must take account of any representations made by a person in accordance with the consultation provisions when the Chief Commissioner is deciding under subsection (7) whether to exclude any material.

(9) If the Chief Commissioner has consulted a person, this section does not require the Chief Commissioner to give that person a draft of any revised version of the final report or any material included in it.

(10) If this section requires the Chief Commissioner to give a draft of the final report to two or more persons, this section does not require the Chief Commissioner to give the same draft to all of those persons.

(11) In this section—

• “applicable response period”, in relation to a person who is consulted, means—

  (a)

  the period of 30 days beginning with the day on which the draft is given to the person, or

  (b)

  if the Chief Commissioner is satisfied that there is good reason to extend the period, such longer period as the Chief Commissioner determines;

• “consultation provisions” means subsections (1) to (5);

• “consulted” means given a draft of a report or other material, and allowed to make representations, in accordance with the consultation provisions;

• “material criticising a public authority” means material which, in the Chief Commissioner’s view, constitutes significant criticism of a public authority (and that material may consist of or include criticism of one or more individuals, whether living or not);

• “relevant family member” has the meaning given in Part 2 of Schedule 3;

• “material criticising an individual” means material which, in the Chief Commissioner’s view, constitutes significant criticism of a living individual who was involved in the conduct forming part of the Troubles, or other harmful conduct forming part of the Troubles, to which a review relates;

• “relevant event”, in relation to the final report on the findings of a review of a death or other harmful conduct, means the event in which that death, or other harmful conduct, occurred.