8. Submissions on Behalf of the Executive Office Northern Ireland by Mr Coll KC

Mr Coll: Thank you, my Lady.

My Lady, I appear on behalf of the Executive Office. It is also known by its short form as TEO.

So the TEO welcomes the work of the Inquiry and in particular, as the Inquiry turns its focus to this module, looking at governmental decision-making in Northern Ireland relating to the Covid-19 pandemic between early January 2020 and March 2022.

At the outset of this module, TEO wishes to again acknowledge the impact the pandemic and the management of the pandemic had and continues to have on the people of Northern Ireland. TEO offers its sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of all those who died in the pandemic, often in terrible circumstances, and its sympathies to all of those who were affected by Covid-19 and the measures introduced to address the public health risks that it brought to our community.

TEO recognises the very real impact that those measures had on very many in Northern Irish society, on how they were able to engage in the normal interactions of life, the isolation and loneliness experienced by many, and the widespread enduring impact continuing to be felt today by our community, particularly by our elderly and vulnerable groups.

Can I say, my Lady, that in relation to the experience video that we saw today, nobody watching that video could be otherwise than deeply and genuinely affected by the stories of loss, devastation, isolation that they describe.

One is mindful also that that video is but a snapshot or a vignette of a much wider widespread reality still being experienced in Northern Ireland today.

It goes very starkly to underline the significance of the work of the Inquiry, and indeed the importance of the participation of those so terribly affected by the pandemic in the work of the Inquiry.

It is not the intention, by the way, of this opening statement to enter into detailed submissions, nor indeed, at this stage, to put forward any contentions or arguments as to what the evidence to the Inquiry demonstrates in respect of TEO’s role in the decision-making relevant to the issues in this module. It is, however, apt to take the opportunity to set out perhaps some essential aspects in brief detail of the surrounding context.

Module 2C comes at the end, obviously, of a series of modules in respect of governance and decision-making processes across different parts of the United Kingdom. As appears from the outline of scope, the Inquiry will wish to carefully consider and take account of the bespoke arrangements of government in Northern Ireland, and indeed that was obvious from my learned friend Ms Dobbin’s opening to you earlier today.

Those arrangements have, of course, been endorsed by the people of Northern Ireland to reflect the need to ensure broad cross-community support and participation in the structures of government here in a post-conflict society. Put simply, Northern Ireland is different and unique. It is hoped that the statements from TEO witnesses and particularly the TEO corporate statement has been of assistance to the Inquiry in that regard.

As referenced already, this opening statement is not the appropriate means to engage on this issue in full detail. It is perhaps suffice for the moment to note the following: the constitution at arrangements in Northern Ireland stem from the Good Friday Agreement. For current purposes, possibly the most significant difference between Northern Ireland and the other parts of the United Kingdom in terms of governance is the particular construction of the Northern Ireland Executive Committee, operating as a mandatory coalition.

The Executive, as you have heard, is made up of ten ministers across nine departments, the First and deputy First Minister holding joint office. Each minister in general terms has executive authority to determine policy and operational matters within their department, subject to the requirement that certain matters – in summary, for current purposes, cross-cutting or significant or controversial – will be referred to the Executive for decision.

Those particular high-level constitutional arrangements have resonant implications for the structure and operation of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, which of course, it must be remembered, is an entirely distinct operation from the Home Civil Service in Great Britain.

Each of the departments in the Northern Ireland Civil Service is a separate legal entity. The minister in each department is the head of that department, and the department is subject to his or her direction and control.

The permanent secretary in each department is accountable to that department’s minister. As a consequence, the Civil Service here does not operate in what might be described as a hierarchical or “command and control” type fashion. That might be the experience elsewhere but it is not the fit here.

TEO and, indeed, the head of the Civil Service here, do not exercise day-to-day management and control of the other departments, and under the arrangements in place the head of the Civil Service does not have the power to direct the permanent secretaries of other departments in the exercise of their functions.

Essentially the role of the head of the Civil Service is three-fold: principal policy adviser to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister; secretary to the Executive Committee; and head of the Civil Service and of the some 23,000 civil servants in Northern Ireland led by individual permanent secretaries.

It must, of course, be recognised that frontline staff in both the public and private sectors, providing essential services to the public were dealing during the pandemic with the most difficult and unprecedented of circumstances. Alongside this, TEO recognises that as part of the surrounding context for this module those involved in the development of policy, and indeed in the decision-making processes, were doing so in testing and pressurised conditions, again in an unprecedented and highly complex situation.

Northern Ireland is, as you’ve heard, and as you know, a relatively small jurisdiction. The Civil Service has to operate within a complex political environment, and with ongoing and constant financial pressures. It’s the TEO’s position that people were doing their best, with the intention of serving the interests of the people of Northern Ireland. TEO, like other government departments across the UK, and wider afield, was operating in this unprecedented situation, responding to a global pandemic, and often required to provide advice and guidance to ministers at pace.

In addition, it will not have escaped the Inquiry’s attention that TEO was dealing with other issues, not least the implication to Northern Ireland of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

It’s anticipated from the TEO’s perspective that among the issues that the Inquiry will be particularly interested in examining in this module will be the impact of the absence of ministers for the three years prior to January 2020, and of course it will be noted that the period under examination in this module is effectively book-ended by periods of no Executive being in place from January 2017 to January 2020 and then from February 2022 to February 2024, this year.

It’s also anticipated that the Inquiry will look carefully at equality considerations, resourcing levels in the civil contingencies function, delayed pandemic flu planning, and of course informal communications and retention of information.

It is acknowledged by TEO that in its preparedness for and in its addressing of the pandemic, there will have been matters that could have been done differently and should have been done better. TEO welcomes the important work of the Inquiry in identifying those areas and acknowledges that, alongside this, the pandemic continues to have a profound impact on the people of Northern Ireland. Throughout the Inquiry, and as will continue in this module, TEO have listened in order to learn from the work of the Inquiry and to do things better in the future.

Those are my submissions for the moment, my Lady. Thank you.

Lady Hallett: Thank you very much indeed, Mr Coll.

I think that completes the oral opening submissions.

I’m very grateful to everyone for not only the quality

of their submissions but also the timeliness.

I think we have two witnesses to start this

afternoon, Ms Dobbin.

Ms Dobbin: I think we’re going to have a break first,

though, for ten minutes.

Lady Hallett: We are. So I shall return at 3.10 and we

will begin hearing the evidence. Thank you.

(2.53 pm)

(A short break)

(3.09 pm)

Lady Hallett: Are we a little early? I’m just thinking

about people online, that’s all. We can do the oath.

Ms Dobbin: Thank you.

My Lady, may I call the first witness, please, in

Module 2C.