§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
Which victims groups in Northern Ireland have been audited each year since 1990; and on what basis the audits were carried out. [HL3269]
§ The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos)To meet the responsibilities placed on departments in government accounting 2000, the Victims Liaison Unit, in August 2002, commissioned independent auditors to carry out an audit of 15 per cent of victims' groups in receipt of core funding under the core funding scheme 2000–02. Eight groups were selected for review—FACT, FAIR, Firinne, HURT, Koram Centre, VAST, WAVE and West Tyrone Voice.
One group was selected for audit on the basis that its allocation was higher than the average allocation from the scheme. Another group was selected because of concerns about the management of its allocation. The remaining groups were divided into two categories—those serving a mainly Protestant community and those serving a mainly Catholic community. These categories were further sub-divided into groups operating east of the Bann and groups operating west of the Bann. Groups were then selected at random from these categories.