3. Submissions on Behalf of the Executive Office Northern Ireland by Ms Fee

Ms Fee: My Lady, I appear on behalf of the Executive Office of Northern Ireland. I’m instructed by Joan MacElhatton of the Departmental Solicitor’s Office in Belfast.

My Lady, the Executive Office is one of the nine departments within the government structure of Northern Ireland as was determined by the Good Friday Agreement. Unlike the Cabinet Office, it has no general central co-ordinating or synthesising role as regards the other eight departments. However, in an effort to assist the Inquiry, the Executive Office welcomes the opportunity to make the following observations which are also made on behalf of four of those other departments who do not have core participant status in Module 2C, and that is the departments for Communities, Justice, Education and Infrastructure.

My Lady, turning firstly to the Rule 9 requests for statements and exhibits, since September 2022 the Executive Office team has been working hard to assist the Inquiry by providing a very large volume of evidence including corporate and individual statements and extensive documentation. The Executive Office received the Rule 9 request for its corporate statement in September 2022 and submitted a first draft by the end of October 2022. There followed 54 questions from the Inquiry legal team in March 2023, which resulted in a significant body of work to respond and incorporate into the statement, which was filed on 2 October 2023. Two questions have been returned from the Inquiry team in relation to the impact of the lack of an Executive prior to the pandemic, and those are currently being addressed and also should be addressed in the forthcoming witness statements.

Also during this period, my Lady, the Executive Office were complying with their obligations as a core participant to Module 1. At the same time, the Executive Office is a core participant at Module 2 and has worked hard to digest both the oral and documentary evidence throughout. The extent of work involved in co-operating with the Inquiry’s modules to date has been vast for what is a very small jurisdiction with a proportionately small team. It goes without saying that, absent a government in Northern Ireland since February 2022, the conditions in which the Executive Office and all the other departments are operating in response to this significant Inquiry, most notably the financial conditions, are less than ideal.

In relation to Module 2C, to date, in addition to the corporate statement, the Executive Office is working to respond to the request for a further corporate statement regarding informal messaging and potential data loss and seven further individual statements.

In addition, the Executive Office has, over the last year, provided approximately 25,000 documents to the Inquiry by way of general disclosure and exhibits to statements. The Executive Office would observe that this has been a mammoth task, and in many instances the Rule 9 requests comprise of hundreds of questions which are various and wide-ranging, including the constitutional peculiarities of Northern Ireland.

The Executive Office has worked hard to facilitate witnesses with access to the information and documentation they no longer have, and that process has also been undertaken for both the former First and deputy First Ministers, who are separately represented at this Inquiry.

The departments for Communities, Infrastructure, Justice and Education have provided all discovery and statements within the agreed time periods, and are now working to complete the current Rule 9 requests by 8 January.

Secondly, my Lady, in relation to that informal communication, the Executive Office has received that Rule 9 request for a statement from the head of the civil service of Northern Ireland, and that is in relation to the informal communications and potential data loss.

The head of the civil service had commissioned an internal Northern Irish civil service-wide investigation into the use of and retention or loss of data within informal messaging systems on the part of all former ministers and special advisers from all of the Northern Ireland Government departments. That investigation culminated in a report which has been shared and work is now under way within those departments to retrieve any available data from those devices.

At the same time the Executive Office is working to provide the Inquiry team with all informal messaging and equivalent material in its possession. All Executive Office witnesses have addressed the matter in their witness statements. Senior civil servants from the Executive Office department have provided 172 strands of messages to date. Following a review by the team, a small number of messages have been identified that may be in scope and those will be uploaded in the coming days.

The departments of Education, Justice, Infrastructure and Communities have provided some messages and are continuing that process of uploading their informal communications.

Thirdly, my Lady, in relation to the notebooks and diaries, the Executive Office and the other departments for whom I appear today will provide all available notebooks and diaries to the Inquiry.

In relation to statements, in particular those from the former two ministers from other departments which has been raised to your Ladyship today, the matter will receive urgent action.

Finally, my Lady, in relation to the hearings in April 2024, Modules 1 and 2 have demonstrated the vast nature of the task involved in consideration of discovery, the preparation of witnesses, marshalling statements and exhibits, digesting evidence proposals and participating fully in the hearings. The Executive Office is grateful for the regular meetings they have had with the Inquiry team in furtherance of the preparation for Module 2C and appreciates the patient and collaborative approach they have shown our team, and that has been replicated in my discussions with Ms Dobbin King’s Counsel and Mr Scott.

The Executive Office and the other departments for whom I speak today are determined to properly assist your Inquiry and welcome you and your team to Belfast in April.

Unless I can assist you any further, my Lady.

Lady Hallett: No, thank you very much indeed, Ms Fee, very grateful.

Anything further from you, Ms Dobbin?