Britain's MI5 and senior policing figures were secretly involved in drafting the Legacy Act, a 2023 law that offered conditional immunity to soldiers and paramilitaries over killings during the Northern Ireland Troubles (a three-decade conflict that claimed more than 3,500 lives), according to documents obtained through freedom of information requests. The previously undisclosed policymaking group, established in 2020, included the former chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and a senior Home Office national security official, raising concerns that the very agencies subject to potential investigations were shaping the terms of accountability. Victims' groups say the revelations confirm long-held suspicions that state security interests drove the legislation; the current UK government has said it is repealing and replacing the act.