New laws to help the families of missing persons

The Presumption of Death Bill was passed by the Assembly on 27th April 2009. The Bill creates a new court procedure whereby any person may apply to the High court for a declaration that a person who is missing may be presumed dead. The application can be made in cases where there is evidence that the missing person has died or has not been known to be alive for a period of seven years. If the High court makes the declaration of presumed death the Registrar General will enter the details of the missing person in a new Register of Presumed Deaths.

The Bill addresses the concerns of some of the Families of "the Disappeared" who asked for the law to be changed to allow the deaths of their family members to be registered and death certificates issued. The new legislation is, however, of general application and will be available in relation to a wide range of missing persons in circumstances where it may be presumed that the missing person has died.

The Bill was introduced into the Assembly in July 2008 by Nigel Dodds, Minister for Finance and Personnel, following a public consultation on the draft Bill published in January 2008 Consultation Paper on the draft Presumption of Death Bill (Northern Ireland) 2008 (PDF 2 MB) seeking comments on the draft legislation from a wide variety of individual and groups. A summary of responses (PDF-91 KB) received to that consultation exercise was published in April 2008,

The Assembly Committee for Finance and Personnel considered the Presumption of Death Bill in detail and published its Report in January 2009.

The Bill will now be laid before Parliament prior to receiving Royal Assent. The new legislation will come into force later this year.