Northern Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time)

The parties themselves will have to determine the model beyond May 2012. We are devolving policing and justice powers; we are not saying that we are partly devolving them and saving a little for ourselves. The matter is entirely for those parties. From everything that I see and hear, I am entirely confident that they can manage that constructively. The hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael) is a good friend of the peace process, and I thank him for all the constructive discussions that we have. On his major point of concern, it simply could not happen that, frivolously, the Assembly could get rid of the Justice Minister on a whim. There would have to be a motion before the Assembly, which would have to be tabled by at least 30 MLAs. That motion would have to be tabled jointly by the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister. In the end, there has to be a mechanism for removing someone from office. In every single one of the models—we will have nine if the legislation goes through—the mechanism for appointing the Minister is the same as that for removing that Minister. That is the justification and the rationale for this measure.