Northern Ireland

Former secretary of state Peter Hain will 'hound' British government over payments to Troubles victims

Former secretary of state Peter Hain
Former secretary of state Peter Hain Former secretary of state Peter Hain

FORMER secretary of state Peter Hain last night said he would "hound" the British government to get a pension scheme for victims of the Troubles up and running.

Lord Hain branded the failure to implement the payments a "savage denial" of the rights of those injured as he hit out at both Stormont politicians and secretary of state Brandon Lewis.

The scheme was drawn up last year by the British government but there has been a dispute with the Executive over how it will be funded.

The DUP and Sinn Féin are also at odds over eligibility criteria, which could bar some people who have served prison terms.

The executive has not signed off a department to administer the scheme, although it did set aside £2.5m last week for preparatory work.

It was revealed yesterday that the Executive Office is facing three legal challenges over the failure to implement the scheme.

Some victims' groups said they would seek leave for a judicial review, with hearings set to take place next month.

In a speech in the House of Lords yesterday, Lord Hain said the failure to get the scheme going amounted to a "savage denial of rights enshrined in legislation", approved by MPs and peers.

"It is now 40 days since the scheme should have been opened for applications and because of a disgraceful display of political intransigence within the Executive Office some of the most vulnerable men and women in Northern Ireland and beyond have been denied access to it," he said.

The former Labour minister also said the government had argued that a High Court challenge to the failure to implement the scheme be "set aside to allow another arguably weaker judicial review to proceed in its place".

He said "that was and is disgusting behaviour by the Secretary of State" (Brandon Lewis) and the Conservative minister and his officials should be "thoroughly ashamed of yourselves".

"It is simply not good enough for ministers to intone that this is a devolved matter and how awfully sorry they are that things have turned out this way," he said.

"The secretary of state cannot be allowed to wring his hands and sit on them at the same time."

He said parliament did not have the power to hold the Stormont Executive to account for its "shocking and illegal refusal to implement the law" but the UK government must address this "gratuitous insult to victims and survivors who have suffered so much already through no fault of their own".