Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 (Specified Organisations) Order 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order specifies those organisations which the Secretary of State believes are concerned in terrorism connected with the affairs of Northern Ireland, or in promoting or encouraging it, and have not established or are not maintaining a complete and unequivocal ceasefire. The organisations mentioned in the Schedule are specified organisations for the purposes of the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 (c. 35), which makes provision about the release on licence of certain prisoners serving sentences of imprisonment in Northern Ireland. The effect of specifying an organisation is that a prisoner who is, or who would be likely to become, a supporter of such an organisation is ineligible for release under the Act.

This Order revokes the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 (Specified Organisations) (No. 2) Order 1998 (1998/2869), which provided that The Irish National Liberation Army was a specified organisation for the purposes of the Act, in addition to the first and second organisations listed in the Schedule to the present Order. Section 3(8) of the Act requires the Secretary of State to keep the list of specified organisations under review, and to make a new order if he considers that the conditions recited in the preamble to the Order no longer apply to an organisation which is specified, or that those conditions apply to an organisation which is not specified. Following such a review, the Secretary of State has decided that The Irish National Liberation Army should no longer appear in the list.

The Secretary of State has also decided that two organisations should be added to the list. They are The Red Hand Defenders, and the organisation using the name “The Orange Volunteers” and being the organisation in whose name a statement described as a press release was published on 14th October 1998. A copy of such a statement has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament.