Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is in line for “a pay day from the taxpayer” under plans to repeal the Legacy Act, a report backed by several peers has stated.

The legislation presently blocks him – and many others interned without trial in the 1970s – from claiming compensation for unlawful detention.

Policy Exchange, a London-based think tank, has criticised moves to the lift the ban.

Labour, which has begun the process of repealing the act, said the previous government’s approach to legacy was “almost universally opposed in Northern Ireland”.

A UK Supreme Court judgement in 2020 paved the way for Mr Adams to receive damages after it quashed his convictions over two attempted prison break-outs.

It ruled his detention was unlawful because the interim custody order (ICO) had not been “considered personally” by the then Northern Ireland Secretary Willie Whitelaw.

At the time, the Conservative government argued the ICOs were lawful due to a convention known as the Carltona principle, where officials and junior ministers routinely act in the name of a secretary of state.

A clause was inserted into the Legacy Act, blocking payouts to Mr Adams and around 400 other people interned in similar error.

Last February, the High Court ruled the parts of the act related to the ICOs were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The government has now tabled a remedial order in Parliament that will repeal various parts of the Legacy Act, including the sections covering ICOs.

The Policy Exchange paper criticising the move has been backed by 16 peers, including Shadow Attorney General Lord Wolfson KC.

He said: “The government’s decision to repeal sections 46 and 47 of the Northern Troubles Act 2023 is inexplicable and unexplained.

“Parliament must now ask hard questions about why the government is determined to override Parliament’s recent, unanimous decision to vindicate the Carltona principle and to block Gerry Adams from being paid public money.”

Speaking on BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster Programme, Lord Caine, a former Northern Ireland Office minister said the Conservatives’ actions to restore the Carltona doctrine wasn’t “really about Gerry Adams or internment.

Instead Lord Caine said it was “about restoring clarity to the law and ensuring that something that was well established in our government proceedings and constitutional practice was restored”.

He said that at the time the Legacy Act was passed, the Labour Party in the House of Commons and the House of Lords did not oppose the amendments about compensation.

“I think it is somewhat rich for them now to be saying that this was opposed by everybody because they didn’t actually oppose them at the time,” he said.

“They [Labour] might make a big song and dance about repealing and replacing the Legacy Act but the vast bulk of the Legacy Act is actually the establishment of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, which they are committed to keeping.”

A government spokesperson at the Northern Ireland Office said: “During the Legacy Act’s passage through parliament, that Government belatedly agreed to an amendment on the custody orders, despite the original ruling having been made all the way back in 2020.

“Last year, that amendment was ruled by the Northern Ireland Courts to be unlawful and therefore it needs to be repealed.”

They added that “it should not be forgotten that the Legacy Act also included a scheme that allowed for immunity from prosecution, including for those who committed the most appalling terrorist crimes.

“We are also repealing these unlawful provisions and will be bringing forward new primary legislation to address the full range of legacy issues.”