Responsibility for policing and justice matters in Northern Ireland has been devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive since April 2010. All decisions on prosecutions are taken independently of Government and in accordance with the Code for Prosecutors.<\/p>
<\/p>
As I have made very clear in a number of statements, I am concerned that the existing mechanisms for investigating incidents which occurred during the Troubles are disproportionately focused on the actions of the Armed Forces and former police officers, rather than the terrorists who were responsible for 90 per cent of deaths. This is wrong and it has to change. That is why this Government supports the full and faithful implementation of the Stormont House Agreement, which would see a move to a new system that would, under legal obligations, operate in ways that are fair, balanced and proportionate. The proposed new institutions, set out in the Stormont House Agreement, have a number of important advantages over the system currently in place in Northern Ireland, including that they will consider deaths in chronological order. This will ensure that outstanding investigations into terrorist murders, including the murder of 185 soldiers, are investigated and evidential leads are pursued.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1530", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for James Brokenshire"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Old Bexley and Sidcup"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "James Brokenshire"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2017-01-23", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : {"_value" : "60649"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2017-01-23T13:06:57.067Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "21"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Northern Ireland"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Northern Ireland"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2017-01-18", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Veterans: Northern Ireland"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the public interest in pursuing prosecutions against former members of the armed forces for activities in Northern Ireland which occurred prior to the Good Friday Agreement.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4243", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Dan Jarvis"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Barnsley Central"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Dan Jarvis"} ], "uin" : "60651"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }