In Re: Patrick Finucane

1 April 2009

Dear Mr Nollmeyer

Thank you for your correspondence of 31 March to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in connection with the case of Patrick Finucane.   I have been asked to respond on his behalf.

Let me begin by saying that the murder of Mr Finucane  in 1989 was an outrageous crime which the Government condemns absolutely.

You ask the Government to "live up" to "promises to instigate a properly independent public inquiry into the killing of Patrick Finucane."   Our position remains that if there is to be a statutory inquiry into Mr Finucane's death the only way such an inquiry could take place is under the Inquiries Act 2005. The Inquiries Act is the only statutory basis for  all inquiries  because all the old legislation has been repealed.

The Government is clear that the Inquiries Act provides for fully independent and effective inquiries.

The Government has already established three of the public inquiries recommended by Judge Peter Cory . Importantly the judges chairing two of those -the Billy Wright and Robert Hamill inquiries - themselves asked the Government to apply the Inquiries Act because they felt that it would enable them to carry out their work more effectively. They are continuing to carry our robust and effective investigations under the terms of the Act . The Act has is also being used for a number of other inquiries currently taking place elsewhere in the UK.

A Finucane inquiry under the Inquiries Act would have full statutory powers to compel evidence and witnesses and the hearings, in Judge Cory's words, would be public   " to the extent possible " .  The independent Chairman would have full access to all the evidence and would see every witness and read every document.

The Inquiries Act 2005 also requires inquiry reports to be published. This was not the case under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921, which has now been repealed.

The Government is currently in correspondence with the Finucane family's legal representatives about the basis on which any inquiry would be established.  Once these discussions have included we will need to take a decision on the way forward .

Thank you for raising your concerns I hope this response has helped to address them

Yours sincerely

Simon Marsh

Principal Private Secretary

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