Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 (Renewal of Temporary Provisions) Order 2010

My Lords, I thank the Leader of the House for what she has said. She has significantly broadened this debate, as I had hoped. This might not happen tonight, but she has opened the doors on several fronts. First, I associate myself with her comments on the anniversary of the deaths of Stephen Carroll and the two soldiers at Massereene. That was a terrible time, but sadly this is still going on. On the vote today, my party and I are absolutely delighted that the issue of policing and justice has been brought to a conclusion, but had we not had the interference of Americans and goodness knows who else, and had the Secretary of State behaved very differently—he tried to bully us as well as everyone else—we might have had a unified vote as opposed to a divided one. That was entirely down to Mr Woodward and his attitude and behaviour to Northern Ireland. He must be the worst Secretary of State in my 11 years here with whom I have ever had to deal. In fact, I have not had to deal with him because he does not speak to me. Those are my views on where we are. As I said, I am delighted, and so is my party, that we got there and that policing and justice have been devolved. I am disappointed that the vote was not 100 per cent for devolution, but it could have been in different circumstances. That is the frustration. I like perfection and I like things to be done well. This was not. My party entirely agrees with the renewing of the order for one more year. I believe that the noble Baroness will reassure us when she winds up the debate that it will be renewed for one year and only one year. Where has it left us? It has achieved a great deal. The PSNI—she gave us all the figures—is a very different force from the Royal Ulster Constabulary. However, it has suffered from a significant lack of experience and ground intelligence throughout the process and there is still a serious void in detectives to investigate and keep up with the ever increasing sophistication of the terrorists who still attempt to destroy our Province. The other thing that needs to be noted and that should concern us is that almost as many Roman Catholics are leaving the service as are being recruited. That, too, is a very sad reflection on where we are. One recruit said a few months ago that he did not join the PSNI to be shot at. It was reported in the press that it was not the sort of job that he had expected when he joined the PSNI. I have some sympathy with him, although I am not sure that I have a great deal, because that has been the nature of policing in Northern Ireland ever since time was. The noble Baroness mentioned diversity and ethnic minorities. She is right. The number of ethnic minority members has increased and they are playing an ever increasing part in the social structure and fabric of the Province. Most contribute extremely well, because they are great entrepreneurs. A large number of them are being supportive and helpful. To sum up, we are delighted that policing and justice have been devolved. We are prepared to agree to the Government extending the provisions for one more year and we hope that that will be the end of it. We hope that the PSNI will be able to hold its recruits for a little longer, however that needs to be done—whether through pay, training, accommodation or managing the areas in which they live. A lot of these people are very brave; they live in areas in which their enemies are down the road and are increasing. Overall, I support the order.