Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry


The 2014–2016 Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, often referred to as the HIA Inquiry, is the largest inquiry into historical institutional sexual and physical abuse of children in UK legal history. Its remit covers institutions in Northern Ireland that provided residential care for children from 1922 to 1995, but excludes most church-run schools. The Inquiry was set up in response to the Inquiry into Historical Institutional Abuse Act 2013. Following a request to extend its timescale, the Inquiry's Report was delivered to the First Minister and deputy First Minister on 6 January 2017, shortly before the deadline of 18 January, and published on 20 January. The cost was estimated at £17-19m, with 30 people working on the enquiry according to its Frequently Asked Questions as of January 2017. There are provisions for witness support. The Inquiry had statutory powers to compel witnesses living in Northern Ireland to appear before it and evidence held in Northern Ireland to be given to it; to take evidence under oath; and to be held in public except where necessary to protect individuals' privacy. Inquiry Rule 14 does not allow any explicit or significant criticism of a person unless the chairperson has sent them a warning letter, with a reasonable opportunity to respond.
Victims and survivors are represented by the Inquiry's legal team at hearings; other witness may have their own legal representatives. Only the Inquiry legal team questions witnesses, and victims and survivors will not normally be cross examined by anyone else except in extremely unusual cases.
The Inquiry concluded its hearings on 8 July 2016 and released its report on 20 January 2017.
In October 2019 the House of Lords passed the Historical Institutional Abuse Bill "to establish the Historical Institutional Abuse Redress Board and confer an entitlement to compensation...", and it was passed by the House of Commons as one of its last acts before the 2019 United Kingdom general election.
In the 2019 New Year's Honours list, the Secretary of the Inquiry, Andrew Browne, was made OBE for his services to victims and survivors of abuse, while Paula Dawson was made MBE for her services to public inquiries.
In May 2020 Interim Advocate for Survivors of Historical Abuse Brendan McAllister office leaked the personal and private details of appropriately 250 Survivors of Historical abuse in an emailing data breach error and as a result Mr McAllister faced widespread calls to resign from the two oldest and largest Survivor groups the Saint Patrick's Survivors and SAVIA alongside many other independent survivors whom had lost complete trust in the Interim Advocate.
June 2020 Interim advocate Brendan Mcallister was back making headlines again for all the wrong reasons in what was described by Survivors of Historical abuse as a crystal clear conflict of interest when Mr McAllister robbed in vestments to assist in liturgy at Saint Peters Church in Warrenpoint as part of the Down and Conner Diocese despite the fact that the HIA Inquiry had found that the Diocese of Down and Conner failed to raise concerns about serial child abuser Father Brendan Smyth, and did not raise allegation of abuse to social services or the police. Once more Mr McAllister faced widespread calls to resign.

Scope of inquiry

The inquiry said that it would investigate the following Institutions, but that it might later decide to investigate others:
The inquiry covers residential care, but specifically does not cover other cases of clerical abuse, or most church-run schools
The Inquiry's hearings are held in the former Banbridge courthouse; the opening hearing was held on 13 January 2014, with open oral testimony to finish in June 2015, and with the inquiry team reporting to the Executive by the start of 2016. Hearings are divided into modules:
Evidence called and transcripts are available on the HIA Web site.
The Inquiry examined allegations relating to the former Kincora Boys' Home from 31 May to 9 July 2016, including claims that there was a paedophile ring at the home with links to the intelligence services; Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said that all state agencies would co-operate with the inquiry.

Findings

On 20 January 2017 the Inquiry chairman Sir Anthony Hart, a retired Judge, announced the release of the Report. He "..outlined a series of recommendations after he revealed shocking levels of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the period 1922 to 1995."
He said that all documents considered relevant and without private information would be placed on the Web site, starting before the report was released, but warning that it would take some time before the task was completed.