Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

The Human Rights Commission was given a wider brief than that, even in the legislation that established it—the Northern Ireland Act 1998—just as that Act provided for many things that went way beyond the wording and detail of the Good Friday agreement. There are many powers and changes in this and other legislation that go well beyond the text and terms of the agreement, some of them for good reasons and some for bad ones. If the hon. Lady is suggesting that nothing can be done unless it can be bound within the strict confines of the wording of the agreement, there would be very little that we could legislate on or amend in the future, including many of her own party’s proposals. Amendment No. 22 is designed to get rid of petty restrictions on the power of the commission to enter places of detention. As it stands, the Bill provides that the power to enter places of detention cannot be exercised within 15 days of the terms of reference of the investigation being sent to the person running the place of detention. That 15-day restriction period would, of course, give anyone enough time to clean up their act, or to cover up any inactions that might have brought them to the attention of the commission in the first place. Equally, as the Bill stands, it is provided that there can be an appeal to the county court against the commission’s power to enter places of detention. Again, this is not found in other Northern Ireland legislation on investigatory powers that we are aware of. Why has the Human Rights Commission been singled out for this restriction on its investigatory powers? It is simply not necessary. If the commission exceeds its powers, it can already be judicially reviewed. All that will be achieved by this provision is the ability to slow down the commission’s work and reduce its effectiveness in working on behalf of our citizens. We want to ensure that the Human Rights Commission has the powers to enable it to do the job that is expected of it by our citizens.