Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

The Bill departs from the emergency powers legislation and the powers now embodied in part VII of the Terrorism Act 2000. I welcome the fact that such a move is now possible. I accept, too, the Government’s argument that although we all want a presumption in favour of trial by jury in criminal cases, there remains a need for judge-only trials to counter the risk of intimidation and subversion of the jury system by very well-organised paramilitary groups. Although we will be able to pursue various questions and points of concern in Committee and on Report, I will now specify some of the issues that we will wish to press during those later stages. In an earlier intervention, I mentioned my concern about the fact that the certification power in the Bill is given to the Director of Public Prosecutions alone, without any form of judicial scrutiny. That differs from the arrangements that the Government introduced in the 2003 Act, which requires the prosecution to apply to a judge for approval of a non-jury trial. The arrangements in the Bill also bring into question the role and status of the DPP. That point was made by Lord Carlile’s predecessor as independent reviewer, Mr. John Rowe, who argued in one of his reports, in respect of the Attorney-General’s power concerning certification or scheduling in or out of offences:"““The Attorney-General’s decision to certify opens the door to jury trial. In the reverse direction he would be denying jury trial, and that is inappropriate for the officer who has the conduct of all criminal prosecutions. It is also inappropriate for the officer who is indeed, in the words of a former Attorney General, Lord Mayhew of Twysden, ‘constitutionally the guardian of the public interest’.””" Although the Bill refers to the DPP rather than to the Attorney-General in person, I think that the same concerns apply to the unchecked exercise of these powers by the DPP as Mr. Rowe considered to apply to the exercise of such powers by the Attorney-General.