Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I begin by thanking my team who worked in Committee. In particular, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone), who, as the Minister said earlier, hardly missed a minute and made a number of valuable contributions. I also thank the Ministers and their officials for the way in which they have always been prepared to discuss outside the Chamber aspects of the Bill. That has been very useful, and I hope that it has led to a more informed debate than might otherwise have been the case. I want to echo what the Minister has just said: I hope that the Executive can be formed. We have spent many hours discussing Northern Ireland issues upstairs as a function of statutory instruments, which are not amendable and which we must take or leave. That is not the best way to run Northern Ireland, and I hope that the process comes to an end. I represent an English seat and visit Northern Ireland as much as I can, but I cannot possibly have the same knowledge or feel for the issues as people in Northern Ireland, so I hope that progress can be made. Although we welcome the recent statement by Sinn Fein, the Bill reminds us that not all things are as they should be in Northern Ireland, as the Minister has recognised. The fact that trials without juries are still going ahead, albeit on a decreasing level, is testament to that. As we said in Committee and again today, we are concerned about how the decision on the mode of a trial is arrived at. I would still prefer the Lord Chief Justice to make that decision instead of the DPP. I hope that the Minister might reconsider that. In Committee, I expressed concern about the stop-and-search powers given to the police and the Army. While I recognise that they are needed, the police should be given time that is judged reasonable rather than time that they feel is necessary. That is a small point but it could be important. Given that the Province is improving to such an extent, the fact that those powers still exist is a sad reminder that everything is not quite right. In Committee, we questioned the Government’s extension of the powers of the Human Rights Commission. We do not particularly approve of that, but it will not cause us to vote against the Bill, which we support and wish well. There is another matter that would more properly be dealt with through a new clause, but it was not possible to do so. The police in Northern Ireland would like to have some of the powers contained in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 with regard to setting bail conditions. PACE does not apply in Northern Ireland, which is subject to the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, as amended. Having taken advice, it became clear to us that it would be enormously difficult to design a new clause to achieve that—indeed, a whole new section of the Bill would have been required—so we were unable to table one. I do not know whether it would be possible to do so in another place—probably not, for the same reasons. However, perhaps the Government could reconsider the matter. In conclusion, it has been a pleasure to take part in the debates on the Bill, and I wish it well.