In October, Act Now members chipped in to fund a series of FOI requests to make Stormont more transparent and expose the Loyalist Communities Council’s (LCC) influence on departments. 

This action was in response to the news that the LCC - which represents the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando paramilitary groups - were putting pressure on Education Minister Paul Givan to halt plans for an Irish Language primary in East Belfast and had also met with Communities Minister Gordon Lyons. 

We submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests to every Minister in the Executive to find out the scale of LCC’s influence at Stormont over the past five years. Here is the information we requested:

• Records/logs of the number of meetings each Minister and their respective department has had with the Loyalist Communities Council over the past 5 years

• Information on the purpose of those meetings

• The minutes of any meetings held with the Loyalist Communities Council over the past five years 

Our investigation uncovered that both Minister for Communities, Gordon Lyons and Minister for Education, Paul Givan, both held meetings with the Loyalist Communities Council - both in 2024.

Below are links to the full responses from each department: