Northern Ireland’s Troubles inquiries expose a legacy system built to stall

Northern Ireland’s legacy process is reaching the point at which an inquiry can be formally established yet practically unable to do its job.

Sir Declan Morgan, chair of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, told MPs that the body has 159 investigations under way and another 57 cases waiting to enter its support process.¹ Those cases involve 293 deaths and 310 people who have come to the commission.¹ The scale is already clear: this is not a small backlog awaiting routine administration.

The commission has fewer than 200 operational staff, while its model indicates that it needs just over 400 investigative and support staff.¹ Morgan warned that, without adequate resources, victims and survivors could turn to public inquiries instead.¹ His phrase—“a shedload” of them—captures the cost of postponing capacity now.¹

That is the recurring British problem with institutional failure. The state can announce a mechanism and define its powers; the harder task is ensuring it has the capacity to work. It is less consistent about funding the staff, systems and oversight required to turn investigation into an answer.

The responsibility here is shared across governments. The previous Conservative government shut down all UK police investigations into Troubles-related killings in May 2024 under the Legacy Act.¹ Labour has promised to repeal and replace that Act, and its proposed Bill would create a reformed Legacy Commission with enhanced powers.¹ But changing the legal framework does not by itself create the investigative capacity that the new framework requires.

Indeed, the proposed changes could add to the burden. Labour’s Bill would give the Attorney General the final say on whether serious Troubles-related prosecutions proceed and would provide further protections for veterans.¹ Separately, an amendment discussed by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi would shift evidence-sensitivity categorisation from organisations such as the PSNI to the commission, a move the ICRIR said would impose an additional burden.¹

Complex cases can legitimately take years. But delay becomes institutional failure when governments repeatedly under-resource the machinery intended to resolve them. The ICRIR’s warning is therefore not merely about staffing. It is about whether Britain will fund the follow-through that its inquiries demand—or leave victims waiting for the next explanation of why the last process could not deliver.