In a letter dated 8 November 1996, David Trimble, MP and Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, addressed Home Secretary Michael Howard regarding the extension of the Decommissioning Bill to England and Wales. Trimble acknowledged the reasonable concerns of police forces that criminals might exploit the Bill to dispose of incriminating weapons without forensic examination. To mitigate this issue, he proposed that the Bill be confined to terrorist weapons only, suggesting that this would not require extensive redrafting. Trimble recommended two specific amendments: one to specify that decommissioning schemes apply solely to weapons held by or for proscribed organizations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) or the Emergency Provisions Act (EPA), and another to allow forensic examination solely to determine if a weapon falls under the scheme's purposes. He expressed hope that these changes would garner support for a comprehensive Bill.
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