Northern Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time)

We have reached the amendments rather earlier than I had anticipated, but I am not complaining about that. Nevertheless, I want to tell the Government that we are still short of time. We have talked a lot about strengthening the independence of the judiciary. One of our proposals is that the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland should be appointed by the Lord Chief Justice on the advice of the Judicial Appointments Commission and not by politicians. I know that when the right hon. Member for Belfast, East (Mr. Robinson) intervened at an earlier stage, I said that I would return to that point. I have since had a brief word with him to clarify his concern. We have talked about the matter and we feel that our amendment is probably the best way forward. I cannot go into all the details now, as I do not have time, but if we get time later we can return to that point. We have discussed the matter with our shadow Attorney-General. We have had extensive discussions about the amendment and we feel that it would improve the Bill. We believe that the amendment would have the added advantage of strengthening the principle of devolution, as the independent nature of the appointments system, free from political interference, would stabilise a very sensitive process. We are also concerned about how, under the proposed model, the Director of Public Prosecutions after devolution would be left without supervision or protection by a person accountable to the Assembly. We agree that his role should be made independent and free from politicians, but the Government propose creating a hybrid that, in effect, would leave him entirely unaccountable and unprotected. The DPP has far reaching powers. His is a very powerful role—for example, he can enter a nolle prosequi application, or decide to prosecute or to stop criminal proceedings—yet he is answerable to no one. He may carry out his functions how he wishes, and he would be removed only in extreme circumstances, such as if he were totally failing to carry out his role. We do not believe that that should be the case. The DPP, like other members of public bodies and the judiciary, should be capable of being held accountable. We propose that he should enjoy the supervision of the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland on devolved matters, and of the Advocate-General on reserved matters. Our amendment would have the added advantage of providing the DPP with a colleague who could speak for his Department in the Assembly. In Great Britain, the Attorney-General is a member of the Government and can speak in Parliament on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, so we feel that the DPP should have the same protection in Northern Ireland. We feel more strongly about this part of the Bill than about most others.