Ulster Unionist Party Leader Jon Burrows MLA has secured a commitment from the Justice Minister and the Health Minister to launch a joint, independent review of trials of the facts in Northern Ireland, after writing to both ministers in July calling for one.

In a joint letter to Mr Burrows, Naomi Long MLA and Robbie Butler MLA confirmed they have decided to launch a review, that an independent external reviewer will be appointed, and that the review will begin in the autumn and report before the end of this Assembly mandate.

Jon Burrows said:

“I asked for this review and I am pleased that both ministers have listened and agreed to act. This matters, and it matters urgently.

“There is real and legitimate public concern about how trials of the facts operate in Northern Ireland. That concern has been building for some time, and the recent high-profile case brought it to a head. The question people are asking is a simple one. Does this procedure strike the right balance between protecting the public, meeting the needs of victims, and serving the wider public interest? Many people no longer believe that it does.

“Consider what victims are left with. A jury can find that serious acts were committed, including against children. No conviction follows. No criminal record exists. The defendant may suffer no loss of liberty even for the most serious offences. A victim walks out of court with a finding on a piece of paper and nothing more. Whatever the legal reasoning behind that, it does not look like justice, and it does not feel like justice to many people.

“Nor is this some obscure corner of the law. Sixty trials of the facts took place here between 2020 and 2025. This is happening to real families, several times a year, largely out of public view. There is now a significant public interest in reviewing this area of law and practice.

“As a former police officer, I have seen what happens to public confidence when people conclude that the system is not working for victims. Once that confidence is lost it is very hard to win back. This review is an opportunity to restore it, and I want it to succeed.

“But it has to deliver. The Northern Ireland Law Commission examined unfitness to plead and reported in 2013. Thirteen years on, its recommendations have still not been legislated for. We cannot end up with a second report gathering dust beside the first. The test of this review is not whether it reports. It is whether the law changes and strikes the right balance.

“I will be pressing for terms of reference that are published and broad, for victims’ groups and families to be consulted directly, and for a timetable that allows recommendations to be acted on rather than handed over as unfinished business. Justice must mean more than a finding of fact.”