The state would investigate itself, and the investigation would end before it began.
In the long aftermath of the Northern Ireland Troubles — a conflict that claimed 3,500 lives — the British state quietly arranged for its own security services to help design the very legislation meant to reckon with their actions. Documents released in May 2026, after an eight-month legal battle, reveal that MI5 figures and senior policing officials sat at the table where the 2023 Legacy Act was drafted, shaping an amnesty that would shield them from investigation. For over 1,100 bereaved families, this was not an oversight but an architecture of impunity — a reminder that those who hold power over memory also hold power over justice.
- Secret meetings held during the 2020 lockdown embedded MI5 and policing figures into the very policymaking group designing amnesty for Troubles killings — killings their own agencies had participated in.
- When the Legacy Act took effect in May 2024, it immediately shut down hundreds of active civil cases, stripping over 1,100 bereaved relatives of the investigative mechanisms they had relied on for answers.
- The replacement body, the ICRIR, was presented as a path to reconciliation, but more than two years after its creation it has completed zero cases — a failure that critics argue was engineered, not incidental.
- Released documents show officials explicitly framed a legal bar on criminal prosecutions as 'a key component of the policy package,' revealing that immunity was the goal, not a side effect.
- The current government has pledged to repeal the act, but the exposure of systemic conflicts of interest raises a harder question: whether any state can be trusted to design the rules governing its own accountability.
In the spring of 2020, while Britain was locked down, a secret group of officials gathered in London to draft what would become the Legacy Act — one of the most contested pieces of legislation in recent British history. When documents marked 'official secret' were finally released in May 2026, following an eight-month legal battle by Belfast human rights lawyer Daniel Holder, they revealed something damning: the architects of this amnesty included senior figures from MI5, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and the Home Office — the very institutions whose conduct during the Troubles was supposed to be examined.
The Legacy Act, passed in 2023, offered conditional amnesty to soldiers and paramilitaries for killings during a conflict that claimed 3,500 lives. Among those shaping it were George Hamilton, former chief constable of the PSNI; Madeleine Alessandri, the UK's deputy national security adviser; and Chloe Squires, director of national security at the Home Office. MI5, which had itself been implicated in Troubles-era killings, was helping write the rules that would protect it from investigation.
The meeting minutes record Hamilton suggesting that 'families will welcome information recovery' while dismissing those likely to mount legal challenges as 'a small vocal minority.' Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice responded with restrained fury: the 1,100 bereaved relatives who had filed civil cases — seeking answers about murders, torture, and state killings — were not a fringe. They were families. When the act came into force on May 1, 2024, it shut down their cases and replaced existing investigative mechanisms with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery. More than two years on, that commission has completed zero cases.
A separate released document made the intent explicit: a legal bar on further criminal investigations was described as 'a key component of the policy package,' offering what officials called 'certainty to veterans and victims.' In practice, it meant immunity without answers. Hamilton later disputed the characterisation of his remarks, saying he had stressed the importance of centering victims in any process. But the documents suggest a different priority — one in which the state designed a mechanism to close cases before accountability could take hold.
The current government has announced it will repeal the Legacy Act, but the harm is already embedded. Cases have been shuttered. Families have been told their questions will go unanswered. And the documents now confirm what victims' groups long suspected: this was not a failure of design. It was the design.
In the spring of 2020, while the country was locked down, a group of officials met behind closed doors in London to design what would become one of the most contentious pieces of legislation in recent British history. The meetings were secret. The attendees were not disclosed. And among those shaping the policy were the very people whose agencies would benefit most from it: senior figures from MI5, the police, and the security apparatus of the state itself.
This is what emerged in May 2026, when documents marked "official secret" were finally released after an eight-month legal battle. The Legacy Act, passed in 2023, offered conditional amnesty to soldiers and paramilitaries for killings during the Northern Ireland Troubles—a conflict that claimed 3,500 lives and left wounds that have never healed. What the documents reveal is that the architects of this amnesty included George Hamilton, the former chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland; Madeleine Alessandri, the UK's deputy national security adviser; and Chloe Squires, director of national security at the Home Office. The rest of the group's membership was similarly drawn from the state's policing and security machinery.
The conflict of interest is stark and deliberate. MI5 itself had been involved in many of the killings during the Troubles. The security services were, in effect, helping to write the rules that would protect them from investigation. Daniel Holder, a lawyer at the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a Belfast-based human rights organization, fought to have these documents released after his initial freedom of information requests were rejected. When he finally obtained them, he found evidence of a working group established in 2020 to "assist the development" of what would become Boris Johnson's government's Legacy Act. The group met at least twice—on June 19 and July 20, 2020—with a third meeting apparently scheduled but never disclosed.
In the minutes from these meetings, Hamilton is recorded saying that "families will welcome information recovery" but that "the small vocal minority" would present legal challenges. The comment was not abstract. When the Legacy Act came into force on May 1, 2024, it shut down hundreds of existing cases and replaced the investigative mechanisms with a new body called the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR). More than two years later, that commission had completed zero cases. Mark Thompson, of Relatives for Justice, responded to Hamilton's characterization with quiet fury: the 1,100 bereaved relatives who had filed civil cases seeking answers about murders, torture, and state killings were not a "small vocal minority." They were families.
The documents also reveal the government's stated aim: to conclude investigations of all 3,500 Troubles deaths "within two years"—a timeframe officials themselves acknowledged as "ambitious." The real goal, however, was explicit in another released document. It described "a legal bar on further criminal investigations or prosecutions" as "a key component of the policy package," framed as providing "certainty to veterans and victims." In practice, it meant immunity. It meant closure without answers. It meant that the state would investigate itself, and the investigation would end before it began.
Hamilton later disputed the accuracy of the minutes, saying his comments had been taken out of context and that his participation was meant to ensure "lessons of previous attempts at dealing with legacy investigations were understood." He emphasized that he had stressed the importance of putting victims and families at the center of any process. But the documents tell a different story. They show a group of security officials designing a mechanism that would protect their own agencies from accountability, all while claiming to serve the interests of victims.
The revelations have vindicated long-held suspicions among victims' groups that the security services were the architects of the Legacy Act. The previous attempt to address Troubles killings, the Historical Enquiries Team, had been folded in 2014 after it failed to properly investigate state killings. This time, the state did not wait for failure. It built the failure in from the start. The current government has announced it will repeal the Legacy Act and replace it with something else, but the damage is done. Hundreds of cases have been closed. Families have been told their questions will not be answered. And the documents now show that this outcome was not accidental. It was designed.
Citações Notáveis
Families will welcome information recovery. It is the small vocal minority that will present the legal challenges.— George Hamilton, former PSNI chief constable, in meeting minutes
I wouldn't describe the 1,100 bereaved relatives of murder victims including victims of torture who want answers as a 'small and vocal minority.'— Mark Thompson, Relatives for Justice
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why would security services want to be part of designing a law that investigates their own actions?
Because the alternative was independent investigation. If you're in MI5 and you know your agency was involved in killings, you have two choices: face accountability or shape the rules so accountability never happens. This group chose the second.
But they claimed they were there to help, to ensure lessons were learned.
That's what the documents say they claimed afterward. But the actual minutes show them discussing how to manage "legal challenges" from families and how to build in a legal bar against prosecutions. Those aren't the words of people trying to ensure accountability.
What does it mean that the ICRIR hasn't completed a single case in over two years?
It means the mechanism is broken by design. You can't investigate 3,500 deaths in two years—officials admitted that was "ambitious." So the commission was set up to fail slowly, to run out the clock while families wait.
How many people lost access to justice when the Legacy Act shut down existing cases?
Over 1,100 bereaved relatives had filed civil cases. When the act came into force, those cases were closed. Their investigations stopped. They were told to wait for the new commission. They're still waiting.
Did anyone object to having security officials design the amnesty?
One person did: Simon Byrne, the PSNI chief constable at the time, declined to join the group to remain impartial. But he was the exception. Everyone else in that room had a stake in the outcome.
What happens now?
The government says it's repealing the act. But the cases are still closed. The families still don't have answers. And now we know the state designed it that way.