Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what her assessment is of the implications for the peace process of recent reports of an increasing number of threats being made against community workers in Belfast by the UDA and other loyalist groups.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

As set out in the Assessment of Paramilitary Groups published in October 2015, individual members of loyalist paramilitary groups continue to engage in criminality and seek to exercise community control through violence and intimidation. However, the overall assessment remains that these organisations as a whole remain committed to their ceasefires. I welcome the commitments contained within the Fresh Start Agreement aimed at achieving a Northern Ireland society free from the malign impact of paramilitarism.