Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I begin by saying to the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, that some of us find it extremely hurtful that people can adjudicate and comment on the events of the past 30 years in Northern Ireland as though somehow they were there and saw our services, our Armed Forces and our police, behaving extremely badly. The reality of those 30 years was that many of us left our homes at night with our wives and children locked in the house, not knowing, bluntly, if they would see us again. Throughout those 30 years the vast majority of people, whether they were footsoldiers, as I was for most of the time, or involved in intelligence work or whatever, acted in a manner that enabled Northern Ireland, despite 3,500 deaths, to operate normally. People went about their work, children went to school, our hospitals operated and normal politics continued. I see in this Room people who have worked hard in Northern Ireland and will understand exactly what I am saying. That is so important in defining what should fall directly within and outwith the terms of a Bill of this type. As for the idea that somehow we are talking about masses of people in a Balkans region, we are talking about Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, not the Balkans, not a region dominated by someone called Mugabe, we are talking about a region which, despite terrorism, basically operated as a community should operate. That is why I so deeply resent some of the work that has been done. The Minister knows that I have been single-minded during the past three years in my opposition to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. If I may, I shall give an example of the type of thing that happens. A young policeman is driving a vehicle in Belfast during a riot. The vehicle is seen on television, there are television pictures showing that it mounts a footpath. Sitting at home is the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. She thinks that that is dreadful. The next day, she dispatches her minions to knock on doors in that area to ask if people have complaints. Strangely enough, they have no complaints—I think that they are as fed up with the terrorism as everyone else. Does it stop there? It does not. The Minister will remember giving me a Written Answer in the case to which I allude. The young policeman was brought to court on 29 occasions. The incident was in 2001. It was brought to court the first time in 2003. He was still in court at the end of 2004 and eventually was discharged. The power of the police ombudsman is such that she was immediately able to dictate to the police commanders that, after he had been found not guilty, they should initiate disciplinary action, which goes on to this day in 2007. What does that do to him? What does that do to his colleagues? What does it do to his family? Why do I tell that story—because it is not directly associated with the Bill? Simply because the situation gets so much worse when we see, for example, the police ombudsman's report into the case of the sad murder of Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick. I have a copy of the report here. Here we have a police ombudsman who complains when policemen do not give her the sort of information that she expects. I have just prepared a paper, which I have entitled, The Consequences of Co-Operating with the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland. I draw to the Committee's attention the fact that one of the policemen who did go to speak to the police ombudsman in relation to the murder of Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick is someone whom I know particularly well, someone whom I have worked with for many years. He goes along and says, ““I do not want to record anything because what I am telling you is crucial to a security operation””. There is an agreement that that will be the case. Yet, when I open the report at paragraph 4.1.7, what do I find? I find that she interviewed "““retired Officer B, Head of South Region Special Branch””." She might as well have taken that fellow’s name and put it up on a notice board somewhere. But it is worse than that. She then describes in detail his relationship with the TCG and with security agencies—