Q12 Mr. Dave Anderson: Good afternoon, Sir Hugh. I want to ask you three linked questions. The IMC report on 19 October said that the position was encouraging in terms of the behaviour of the IRA since the 20 July statement. Can you give us an update on that? Also, what (if any) impact has the decision of the LVF to have a stand down of its members had? There is also the worrying thing which happened last week with the bomb hoax at Down Royal and at Waterfront Hall. What, if anything, can you tell us to try and control that, because our understanding is that the continuity IRA say that they are going to make this a tactic to disrupt in the run-up to Christmas?

Sir Hugh Orde: In terms of the IMC report, the next one is due in January. I think that is the critical one, because we will have had a bit more time to assess what is going on. I think you will have seen the activity over the last two weeks in relation to some of the other cases which I am on record as saying were committed by the Provisional IRA, the bank robbery, and people have been arrested in relation to that and indeed charged. It is right that if one were to look at the key indicators, we would certainly look at in the routine punishment beatings and punishment shootings. They have stopped in terms of ones we would attribute to Provisional IRA activity. We have seen that trend before. It shows the control the organisation has on its people and it may well be because they want a clean bill of health in the next IMC report. What I am clear on is that I think the next one is important, but I think we need to look at the one after that and the one after that. We need to keep the structure in place that holds all paramilitary groups to account, not just the IRA. I think the word "encouraging" is probably right at the moment. One needs to be realistic about this. It is an illegal organisation. There are limits on how it can lawfully fund-raise, obviously, and we are keeping a very close eye on criminal activity and we will report fully and frankly to the IMC on everything we find in relation to all paramilitary groups in our next report. So that is where we are on that. In terms of the LVF, it is too early to say, quite frankly. I said at the time we would wait and see, and I am still waiting to see what happens next. We have got no indications that disarmament of Loyalist groups is imminent, so we have to wait and see. On the bomb hoaxes, let us be clear, the dissident Republican groups are determined to wreck the huge progress that Northern Ireland has made, and it is huge progress. If one was to talk about five years or 10 years, I think what has been achieved is outstanding. Their activities at the moment are badly disrupted, both north and south of the border and Garda Siochana, I think, actually arrested more last year than we did and have locked them up. We have been very successful. In their recent bombing campaign based in Ballymena we arrested and charged a large number, worryingly young people who were out committing those offences. So they are looking at economic targets, they are looking at disruption, they are looking at actually making people's lives very uncomfortable and I would not be surprised to see them continuing that activity, certainly in the Christmas period. Economic targets is where I would see their prime activity. I was actually at the racecourse on that particular day. I had won the first two races as well! What was important was to see that the skills of my officers had not diminished over time. The evacuation was well-handled by stewards and police. The investigation will be comprehensive and run by the Crime Operations Group. We are treating all these as a linked series of crimes run as a major inquiry and we need to bring those people to justice.

This is an uncorrected transcript of evidence taken in public and reported to the House. The transcript has been placed on the internet on the authority of the Committee. Neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record. The transcript is not yet an approved formal record of these proceedings.

Promoted by Paul Foy on behalf of Dave Anderson, both of St Cuthbert's Church Hall, Shibdon Road, Blaydon, NE21 5PT