The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, today called on the NI Executive and the UK Government to make urgent progress on dealing with the past.

The comment was made during his annual address to mark the opening of the new legal year which was attended by the Justice Minister, members of the judiciary and senior figures in the justice system.

The Lord Chief Justice said that addressing the significant backlog of legacy inquests was a matter of “real concern”. He outlined the steps he has taken since being appointed President of the Coroners’ Court on 1 November 2015 but said he had made it clear that that there would be a need for political agreement to an injection of additional resources and the full co-operation of other organisations before he would be in a position to deliver inquests which comply with the law as set out by the Supreme Court.

The Lord Chief Justice had hoped it might be possible to secure agreement to proceed to implement the model he had proposed for legacy inquests pending political agreement being reached on the proposed new institutions for dealing with the past but “disappointingly, however, it now appears that a political resolution will be required on an overall legacy package before the resources required for legacy inquests will be released.”

Sir Declan noted that a draft bill to create the new institutions has not yet been published and that costings for the full package of measures for dealing with the past have not yet been provided by the Department of Justice:

“It is impossible to see how the issue of legacy can be moved forward politically without progress having been made on the new legislation and in the absence of a clear assessment of the costs involved in implementing all of the elements of a legacy package. The overall picture is, therefore, hugely disappointing.”

The Lord Chief Justice said the coroners have sought to make as much progress as is possible within the limited resources that are currently available to them but he anticipated they would only have the capacity to complete two further inquests during the remainder of this financial year. He said if the coroners were to continue in this vein, it would be “decades” before all of the outstanding cases would be completed and that this would not comply with the legal requirement to deal with the backlog of cases within a reasonable timeframe:

“The coroner’s courts will not be able to satisfy their legal obligation to deliver these inquests within a reasonable timeframe in the absence of the necessary resources. I do not want us to remain in that position since that would be yet another devastating blow to the families. The judiciary will be facing up to its responsibilities but this is not a matter on which the judiciary alone can deliver. I therefore call again on the local Executive and legislature, and on the UK Government, to play their part as a matter of urgency. We cannot move on while we remain under the shadow of the past. Nor should we. But time is not on our side.”

On other topics, the Lord Chief Justice welcomed the progress that has been made with the Review of Civil and Family Justice being led by Lord Justice Gillen. He noted that a preliminary report on family justice has been published on which views are sought by the end of October. The key recommendations include a move towards problem-solving courts and mediation, paperless courts and online dispute resolution, and better support for children, vulnerable adults and personal litigants.

Sir Declan noted that a preliminary report on civil justice should be published in the very near future. This will again pick up the theme of digital working and propose new structures and governance arrangements for the oversight of the court system. The report will recommend the creation of a non-ministerial department which would be led by the judiciary and would provide strategic direction and manage the fiscal challenges being faced by the courts. This model is already successfully operating in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. The Lord Chief Justice said he has already established a Judicial Executive Group to plan for how such a model might work in Northern Ireland and to engage with the Department of Justice and other interested stakeholders about how the necessary legislation can be brought forward within this Assembly mandate.