Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what estimate he has made of the number of potential claims against former UK armed forces personnel that could be eligible for judicial consideration under the proposals in the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill.

Existing civil cases were not barred from proceeding by the Legacy Act. The Government is, by way of a Remedial Order, repealing the retrospective bar on new civil cases and the bar on future civil cases, which has been found to be incompatible with our legal obligations. It is not possible to predict potential future proceedings.

As is currently the case with the ICRIR, the Legacy Commission will be able to investigate, on request, Troubles-related deaths and serious injuries that occurred between 1 January 1966 and 10 April 1998. While it is not possible to predict its future caseload, the vast majority of the Troubles-related deaths, some 90%, were at the hands of paramilitaries.