The House of Commons has approved draft legislation intended to address the lingering legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles.
According to Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant, families of those who died in the decades-long conflict, alongside military veterans, "deserve answers".
The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill secured approval at its third reading on Tuesday evening by 330 votes to 178, giving the government a majority of 152. The draft legislation will now move to the House of Lords for further examination.
First presented to Parliament last year, the legislation aims to replace the previous Conservative administration’s Legacy Act with a restructured Legacy Commission.
Speaking in the Commons chamber on Tuesday night, an emotional Sir Chris said: "This Bill isn’t about one group or another. It’s not about special favours for one group or another.
"It’s about honesty, candour, the pursuit of justice, and most importantly, truth. Because in the end, it’s only truth that can really set us free."
Addressing earlier remarks about the region's past, he stated: "When people say to me that people need to move on in Northern Ireland, my answer is no.
"No one has moved on more than the victims and survivors of the Troubles. They’re not living in the past, they’re living with the past.
"And if it’s not resolved, if people don’t get answers, that trauma will pass on to the next generation."
Sir Chris added: "Veterans and those armed forces families who lost loved ones in the conflict deserve answers.
"It is in the interests of the whole armed forces community affected by the Troubles that steady progress is made to ensure this legislation’s provisions are effective."
During committee discussions, the minister dismissed assertions from Traditional Unionist Voice MP Jim Allister (North Antrim) that the law was framed to "spare the sensitivities of the Republic of Ireland".
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Alex Burghart raised concerns that Irish legislation would merely permit, rather than mandate, Dublin’s cooperation with the Legacy Commission.
In response, Sir Chris explained that both jurisdictions intend to enact matching legislation so the agreements will "come into force in lockstep".
Authorities in Dublin have pledged maximum cooperation with UK inquiries.
Last week, the Government introduced more than 150 amendments to the Bill, provoking debate over whether MPs had sufficient time to properly examine the measures across a two-day window.
Among these changes was a new measure assigning responsibility to the UK Attorney General to determine whether serious Troubles-related prosecutions should proceed.
Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), argued that assigning this role to the Attorney General provided no extra safeguards for service personnel, while Labour MP Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) asked ministers to rethink the clause.
Critiquing the Attorney General’s expanded powers, Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) observed that conditions in Northern Ireland are "not black and white, it is shades of grey".
Reassuring the House, Sir Chris said: "I just want to make it absolutely clear that the Attorney General is also the Advocate General for Northern Ireland. We are not seeking to undermine in any sense at all the prosecuting authorities in Northern Ireland or in Great Britain.
"It would be completely inappropriate for the Attorney General to bear in mind at all in making this prosecutorial decision, any political considerations.
"I think that by doing this we will be providing a greater sense of reassurance that there is going to be consistency across the piece."
Earlier on Monday, debate focused on the exclusion of the Omagh bombing from the Legacy Commission's scope.
Under the provisions of the draft law, the new body is limited to investigating events and actions that occurred between 1 January 1966 and 10 April 1998, the day the Good Friday Agreement was concluded.
However, the republican car bomb attack in Omagh—which claimed 29 lives, including a mother pregnant with twins—occurred months later, on 15 August 1998.
An amendment put forward by the DUP's Mr Robinson to move the cutoff date to 30 August 1998 was defeated by MPs.
A separate inquiry into the Omagh attack remains underway, backed by an April 2025 memorandum of understanding designed to ensure cooperation from the Irish government.
Ministers were also pressed by MPs to ensure that victims of sexual violence during the conflict could request investigations into their cases.
After Ulster Unionist Party MP Robin Swann (South Antrim) urged that such victims should not "become an overlooked part of the history of the Troubles", Sir Chris promised to "get that right in the House of Lords".
Concerns were also voiced by former Labour defence minister Al Carns, who said he was "deeply concerned" that the legislation fails to afford adequate protection to military veterans.
Mr Carns, who served in Northern Ireland during 2003, expressed worry that the statutory framework would enable lawyers to "rewrite history" and "paint the state as the aggressor".
Sir Chris countered: "The goal of this legislation is to create a human rights-compliant legacy process, which all communities, including veterans and former police officers, can have absolute confidence in."
He insisted the Government's revised text would "ensure our veterans are treated fairly", noting that new clause 32 formally takes into account the operational environment faced by service personnel and the context in which force was deployed to prevent harm.
Sir Chris noted that three specific criteria must be met before any veteran can be summoned to give witness evidence under the legislation.
These conditions require that fresh evidence would materially alter the investigation, that the Commission completes disclosure procedures from state bodies, and that the panel determines compelling new evidence exists or can reasonably be expected to exist.
On Tuesday evening, Sir Chris also clarified that so-called on-the-run letters will provide no legal immunity from prosecution.
The scheme previously informed approximately 200 individuals that they were not sought for paramilitary offences committed prior to the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
Sir Chris stated that new clause 51 ensures the document "cannot be used to prevent or frustrate a prosecution".
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