29 April 2025

SDLP Leader Claire Hanna MP has said victims and their families are being failed by the UK Government’s legacy processes.

She was speaking after the Police Ombudsman published her report into the 1976 killing of 10 workmen at Kingsmill.

South Belfast and Mid Down MP Claire Hanna said:

“Despite an inquest and now a Police Ombudsman’s report it is clear that Alan Black and the families of the other Kingsmill victims have many unanswered questions. Nearly 50 years on from Kingsmill they still do not have the answers they have fought so hard for.

“This case shows how the current legacy processes repeatedly fail and retraumatise victims. Time and time again we have seen the interests of victims and survivors treated as secondary to those of state agents and paramilitaries involved in some of the most heinous crimes imaginable.

“The SDLP has repeatedly called on the UK Government to move to a victim-centred legacy approach. This must include an end to cases being vetoed on the grounds of national security, root and branch reform of the ICRIR and a return to the principles of Stormont House.

“No state or non-state actor has the right to determine the pathway to truth and justice for any victim or their family. As concluded by the Coroner in 2024 the Kingsmill Massacre was an overtly sectarian attack by the IRA, and one of the most awful crimes during the troubles period. There has never even been an admission of responsibility for Kingsmill, let alone an apology or accountability for it and many other IRA murders.

"The absence of comprehensive legacy structures means there is almost no pathway to truth for survivors like Alan Black and the Kingsmill families."