Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 (Renewal of Temporary Provisions) Order 2007

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 (Renewal of Temporary Provisions) Order 2007. The noble Lord said: As is well known, the purpose of the renewal order is to continue the temporary provisions—I emphasise that they are temporary—for the appointment of police officers and police support staff for a further three years with the aim of increasing Catholic composition in the Police Service of Northern Ireland to a level which is considered representative of that community. As many noble Lords are all too aware, the temporary provisions have been debated extensively both here and in another place on numerous occasions. Indeed, I anticipate an informed debate today following the Private Member’s Bill of the noble Lord, Lord Laird, on this issue a year ago. The noble Lord is still laid up—I do not know the details—and is unable to be with us. I am certain that he would have wished to be here today; all he is able to do at present is send in lots of Questions for Written Answer. I look forward to seeing him back here as soon as he is well enough. For those less familiar with this issue, the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 gives effect to the report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, commonly known as the Patten report. This report made a number of recommendations on policing in Northern Ireland, including the need to address the religious imbalance within the police service so that it is representative of the society that it polices. It recommended that all candidates, either as police officers or support staff, who wished to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland and who reached a specified standard of merit in the selection procedure should be placed in a pool from which one-half of those appointed would be Catholic and one-half non-Catholic. This arrangement became known as 50:50 recruitment and is in place today for all trainee police officer recruitment campaigns and directly recruited support staff where six or more similar posts are being filled. The report also recommended that Catholic police officers from Northern Ireland serving in the police service elsewhere, particularly at more senior ranks, should be identified and encouraged to apply for positions in the Northern Ireland police. This arrangement is commonly known as ““lateral entry””. The Government are committed to the need for this legislation and the opportunity it offers in giving the Northern Ireland community a normal police service which is acceptable to all. We are firmly of the belief that these temporary provisions—I again emphasise temporary—are one of the most significant reasons why public confidence in policing is increasing across the community. However, we are also committed to removing the legislation once the religious imbalance is addressed. As clearly set out in the St Andrews agreement, the Government’s target is to increase Catholic composition in the Police Service of Northern Ireland to 30 per cent by March 2011. Under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 the temporary provisions may be renewed by the Secretary of State, for up to and not exceeding three years, following consultation with the Northern Ireland Policing Board. The provisions were first renewed for a three-year period in March 2004 by the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 (Renewal of Temporary Provisions) Order 2004. This renewal order seeks to keep the provisions in force for a further three years until March 2010. That is a year before the target date. As recommended by the Patten report, the temporary provisions are an, "““exceptional measure to try to provide a more representative police service within a reasonable timescale””." I fully understand that many people remain opposed to the measures. However, the benefits that these provisions have had on increasing Catholic composition, as well as the positive impact on increasing community confidence in policing in general, justify the order in order to address this historical imbalance in the composition of the police in Northern Ireland. The order has also, as I shall go on to address in a moment, had the side effect of increasing the female composition of the police. Since the Patten report’s recommendations and the implementation of the temporary provisions, the Catholic composition of police officers has almost trebled. From a mere 8.23 per cent in November 2001, the Catholic composition has increased to 21.43 per cent as of mid-February 2007. This progress is exceptional and reflects the support and faith in the process, including among the 73,000 applicants who applied to join as police officers during this period. Since 2001, 73,000 people have applied to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland, a police service with a total composition of fewer than 8,000 officers. This change has been made possible due to the example set by the courageous and dedicated men and women who have served the community as police officers over the years. But it has not been an easy task: 302 lost their lives serving their fellow citizens during the Troubles. Patten highlighted the imbalance between the number of Catholics and Protestants in the composition of the police as ““the most striking problem”” and it is this that the temporary provisions are aimed at addressing. However, I also take this opportunity to acknowledge the importance of gender and ethnicity in the police service. In the Second Reading debate on the Private Member’s Bill of the noble Lord, Lord Laird, the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, articulated her concerns about the effect that the temporary provisions may be having on ethnic minority applications However, one effect of the 50:50 process in increasing community confidence about applying is that representation of female officers within the Police Service of Northern Ireland has increased from about 12 per cent in November 2001 to more than 21 per cent as of the middle of February 2007. With regard to ethnic minorities, while Patten recommended that every effort should be made to recruit them, given the very small population involved he did not set a target. However, the police have undertaken a number of positive outreach measures aimed at recruiting people from ethnic minorities. The current PSNI ethnic minority composition is 0.3 per cent, which compares favourably with the overall level of the working-age ethnic minority population in Northern Ireland of 0.46 per cent. The translation of advertisements has seen a significant rise in applications from the Chinese community as well as from foreign nationals such as those in the Polish community. For example, in the most recent campaign there were 968 applications from Polish applicants half of whom, I should point out, were still living in Poland. However, I want to take this opportunity to put on the record any concerns that these applications are automatically disadvantaged by being placed in the non-Catholic category. All applicants to the Police Service of Northern Ireland are required to complete an equality monitoring form in accordance with the Fair Employment and Treatment Order (Northern Ireland) 1998 and the Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, irrespective of their country of origin. The information given by applicants on this form is used in making these appointments under the 50:50 policy. Since Poland is a predominantly Catholic country, Polish applicants to the Police Service of Northern Ireland are generally treated as Roman Catholic. However, each and every one is assessed in terms of the religion they declare on the monitoring form. When the temporary provisions issue was previously debated, it was done in a climate where elements of Northern Ireland’s community remained uncommitted, unsupportive and unco-operative with their police officers. Crimes, regardless of how violent, remained unsolved all because of a lack of assistance given to the local police. I have said it many times: if you are not for the police, you are for the rapists, the muggers and the robbers. It is as simple as that in my terms. Today, in this critical period, the climate is notably different and continues to change for the better. I have come armed with statistics to show that this is the case, given the number of people applying for posts, where they come from and so on. Recently, Sinn Fein’s decision to support policing, however much that might be criticised, shows that the word has gone over. Progress made by the Northern Ireland political parties in achieving a political settlement, which we hope will be a final and long-lasting one, provides an historic opportunity to support inclusive policing. With the aid of this order we fully anticipate that the Catholic composition of the Police Service of Northern Ireland will reach the Government’s target of 30 per cent by March 2011. It is at this point that we believe the temporary provisions will have achieved their aim in providing a representative and inclusive police service, and these provisions will no longer be necessary. They are temporary until the target of 30 per cent is achieved. Our estimate, and it can be fairly precise with the recruitment processes taking place, will be achieved by March 2011. At that point, this legislation will lapse. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 (Renewal of Temporary Provisions) Order 2007.—(Lord Rooker.)