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Northern Ireland’s biggest pro-UK party is seeking a recall of parliament at Westminster because of the national security implications of the leak of personal details of all the region’s police officers and staff, including those working with domestic intelligence agency MI5.
Ian Paisley Jr, an MP for the Democratic Unionist party, said this week’s accidental data leak was “such a national security issue” that Britain’s legislators should be brought back from their summer holidays to “address these matters publicly . . . and also to point to ways in which this could be resolved”.
The data breach has raised concerns about the safety of the region’s 10,000 officers and staff, including those working with British intelligence or in undercover roles. The Police Service of Northern Ireland admitted the information may have fallen into the hands of dissident republican groups, which target the region’s police force in their fight for a united Ireland.
Paisley, who has served on the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the force’s oversight body, told BBC Radio Ulster he had not yet received a reply to his recall request from Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons. He said he was also waiting to hear back from Suella Braverman, the home secretary. Parliament is not due to return from recess until September 4.
The data leak has left police officers and staff fearful and furious, with many having long concealed their jobs from even families and friends because of the risks still associated with serving in the police in a region where the terror threat is classed as “severe”.
More than 300 police officers were killed during the region’s three-decades-long conflict, known as the Troubles, which involved republican and loyalist paramilitaries and the UK security forces.
The Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, said almost 2,000 of the force’s 6,625 officers had registered an interest in seeking compensation.
Simon Byrne, PSNI chief constable, has said no one had yet been rehoused as a result of Tuesday’s blunder, but the force is bracing for a flood of as yet unquantifiable compensation claims and also potential fines from the UK data protection regulator.
Paisley said the incident was not only an “absolutely catastrophic disaster in terms of data handling” but also a giant financial problem for the cash-strapped force, which faces a £38mn funding gap. “Our police service cannot afford now to deal with this,” he added.
Northern Ireland faces a public sector budget crunch that extends well beyond the police and has been compounded by the DUP’s refusal to return to the Stormont assembly and power-sharing executive since elections in May 2022 in a protest over Brexit trade rules.
It is demanding further guarantees from London that the region’s place within the UK, and its ability to trade with Britain, will be protected. Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has yet to outline what guarantees he can provide.
Hopes that the executive could be resurrected in the autumn already look in doubt. Ireland’s taoiseach Leo Varadkar this week called for discussions with London on a “Plan B” should the executive not be restored this autumn, when Northern Ireland is due to host an investment conference and US trade mission.
Whitehall insiders indicated the Commons was unlikely to be recalled over the issue. They pointed out that policing matters were devolved, although London was providing support to the PSNI following the leak.
“If they had the executive back up and running, they could recall themselves and question the minister responsible,” one UK government official said, referring to the failure to restore Stormont.
A UK government spokesperson said that the Northern Ireland secretary “continues to be kept updated on developments”, and added: “The PSNI has the government’s full support in responding to the data breach and our focus is on providing appropriate and proportionate support and expertise.”
