Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether his Department wrote to The Executive Office to indicate support for inviting the International Commission on Missing Persons to support the work of the Truth Recovery Independent Panel report into workings of Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995.

The Government supports the work of the Truth Recovery Independent Panel into the workings of Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses in Northern Ireland. I was pleased to see that the Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill secured Royal Assent earlier this month. Victims and survivors have waited too long for what is owed to them.

In response to a letter from a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons about supporting the work of the associated inquiry into the above issues, the Secretary of State confirmed that officials have passed this offer on to the Executive Office, as that office is responsible for the inquiry and associated redress scheme.