Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee

1 July 2026

Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee Actual start House of Lords

15:14 - 16:52
Speaker 1
Good morning and welcome to this public meeting of the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee, our sixth meeting of this session of Parliament.  We're today holding our fourth public evidence session on our inquiry into Article 2 of the Protocol/Windsor Framework, the so-called diminution of rights provision. 

We are fortunate to be joined today by senior representatives of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.  Alyson Kilpatrick is the Chief Commissioner at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.  Éilis Haughey is Director Human Rights after EU Withdrawal at the Commission.  And Dr Claire McCann is the Senior Policy and Research Officer at the Commission.  You're all very welcome to our committee, and we very much look forward to your evidence. 

We'd be grateful if when you first speak, you introduce yourselves briefly and declare any relevant interests in relation to the inquiry. 

Today's meeting is being broadcast, and a verbatim transcript will be taken for subsequent publication.  The transcript will be sent to you as witnesses to check for accuracy.  And I refer to the register of members' interests as published on the committee website.  We've just been joined by Lord Thomas of Gresford online, and I will turn to starting the questioning.  So the first question is, prior to Brexit, how were the R-S-E-O provisions of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement protected? 

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