Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Ms Bradshaw): Are members agreed that this item of business should be recorded by Hansard?

The Chairperson (Ms Bradshaw): I remind members that the Committee considered the most recent retention and disposal schedule for the historical institutional abuse (HIA) redress board at our meeting of 22 October 2025. The retention and disposal schedules that are sent to the Committee are required to be treated in much the same way as a statutory rule. The Committee Clerk has requested further information on the rationale for the timescales that are outlined in the schedule. A reply from the president of the HIA redress board can be found in the Committee meeting pack. I will ask the Committee Clerk to speak to that correspondence.

The Committee Clerk: As the Chair indicated, the Committee for Communities has the responsibility to either OK or not OK retention and disposal schedules. However, if the schedule sits in a remit area of another Statutory Committee — the HIA one, for example, sits with this Committee — that Committee also gets the opportunity to have a look at the schedule and make sure that it is clear about and happy with that schedule.

The Committee first looked at this schedule a couple of weeks ago, on 22 October 2025. Between then and now, I contacted the redress board, and it has replied. As the Chair said, you will find that fairly fulsome reply in the meeting pack. This is about providing comfort to the Committee that the redress board has done everything that it needs to do in order to make sure that its retention and disposal schedule sits in line with its other statutory requirements. The president of the board has, very helpfully, set that out in quite a lot of detail. I draw members' attention to the final two paragraphs of the letter from the president, in which he points out that the schedule went before the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland validation panel earlier this year. Some points were raised, and those were addressed. The schedule was signed off on 29 September 2025 and was then approved by the Minister for Communities and laid before the Assembly on 17 October 2025. In the final paragraph of the letter, the president stated that the schedule:

Which is:

With that in mind, it is for members to decide whether they are happy to approve the schedule from this side, and then let the Committee for Communities know that, so that it can make a final decision.

The Chairperson (Ms Bradshaw): OK, thank you. Do members have any questions?

Ms Ní Chuilín: I queried this, but Justice Fowler's response was very fulsome —

The Committee Clerk: It was very fulsome, yes.

Ms Ní Chuilín: — and it gives me a lot of comfort. The Committee for Communities will transfer the responsibility for the retention and disposal of those records to this Committee.

The Committee Clerk: This Committee will contact the Committee for Communities to say that if we come to the decision that we are content with the schedule as it is, it should go through its process with the Department for Communities.

Ms Ní Chuilín: It will not do that without —.

The Committee Clerk: No, exactly.

Ms Ní Chuilín: That is fine; I am content.

The Committee Clerk: It needs our approval first.

The Chairperson (Ms Bradshaw): I agree that this has been handled well. OK. Is the Committee content to agree to the schedule and to inform the Committee for Communities of that decision?