Vernon Coaker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vernon Coaker on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what estimate she has made of the number of young people involved in (a) dissident republicanism and (b) loyalist paramilitary groups.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

My written statement to Parliament of 15 December 2015 illustrates that dissident republican groupings continue to have sufficient numbers to pose a severe threat to national security in Northern Ireland. The UK Government has allocated £160 million of additional security funding to the Police Service of Northern Ireland over the next five years in order to assist them in tackling the threat from Northern Ireland Related Terrorism.

The Assessment of Paramilitary Groups published in October 2015 confirmed that all the main loyalist paramilitary groups remain in existence and that individual members continue to engage in criminality and also seek to exercise community control through violence and intimidation.

I welcome the commitments contained within the Fresh Start Agreement aimed at ending paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, including establishing a new international body to monitor progress toward that goal. The Government is working closely with the Irish Government to establish this body as part of the overall package of measures aimed at achieving a Northern Ireland society free from the malign impact of all paramilitarism.