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

My Lords, I served as Minister for Home Affairs in the Northern Ireland Parliament working with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and then I served on the Northern Ireland Policing Board to implement the report on the reform of policing. Therefore I have watched these developments with great interest. I must therefore place it on the record that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had a much higher percentage of Roman Catholic members than the figure quoted at the time of the changeover. At one point it reached 20 per cent, but of course the reason it fell rapidly was because of the intimidation of Roman Catholics who were trying to join the RUC, and the fact that Roman Catholics who, having joined the RUC, were then intimidated by Irish republican terrorists. So the percentage of Roman Catholics in the RUC fell. The reason the percentage fell must be made clear: it was not the result of discrimination by the Protestant majority. This order is of great interest to Northern Ireland. As the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, pointed out, over the years it has caused a lot of offence to the Protestant majority because it is, after all, an exceptional recruitment arrangement. It is, on the bottom line, discrimination on the basis of religion; but in these circumstances it may be wise, and that is the problem we face. What is required is a police service that has the consent of the overall community, and that is the bottom line as well. But it is an exceptional measure, and that is why it must be limited in duration. We must reach a stage where people are selected for the Police Service of Northern Ireland irrespective of their religion. The Explanatory Memorandum states that there was consultation. Funnily enough, only 21 organisations were consulted—and badly at that because it was the Government who selected which organisations should be consulted. It sounds as if they were trying to control the result of the consultation. Even having done that, of the 21 bodies consulted, only seven came out in favour of this order, seven opposed it and the other seven were neutral. I would like more information about the degree of consultation. We know that this order causes offence to the Protestant majority. Again, the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, pointed out clearly that not even 50 per cent of police service recruits can be Protestant; they have to be non-Roman Catholics. In other words, Protestants only make up 40 to 45 per cent of the successful applicants, although Protestants probably comprise around 60 per cent of the population of Northern Ireland. So one can understand the resentment at the grass roots, as we call it in Northern Ireland, and one has to be able to explain it and show that it is good for Northern Ireland over the longer term and into the future. I would like to know whether organisations that speak for the Protestant community in Northern Ireland were consulted. Was the largest Protestant church in Northern Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, which operates in Northern Ireland, consulted? Was the Anglican Church of Ireland consulted? Was the Orange Order consulted? It also speaks for a large number of Protestants. These are people who have interests in the Protestant community. Sometimes the churches have not really defended the interests of the Protestant community, so it is important to ensure that everyone is fairly consulted, whether or not you like their views. It is said that we want to make sure that we have a police force that represents all community backgrounds. I was interested to hear that there are now 32 Chinese members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. But today more people speak Mandarin or Cantonese on a daily basis than speak Irish in Northern Ireland. It is interesting to note that spoken Chinese is now the second most used language in Northern Ireland. Many others may know how to speak Irish but they certainly do not use it on a daily basis, whereas the Chinese do because they have restaurants in nearly every town and village across Northern Ireland. We have a large Chinese community, and that is why there are, quite naturally, Chinese members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. I want to see that continuing, because we have large ethnic communities in the province. We have many Polish and Lithuanian people, and they too have to be incorporated in some way into the police service so that it is representative of the entire community. I was interested to note that the Leader of the House has said that the Government will return an order to Parliament, when we reach the target of 30 per cent of Catholics in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, to end these provisions. But I thought that by that time the Government would have no say in the policing of Northern Ireland, and that by then it might well be a matter for the Northern Ireland Assembly, after the transfer of policing and security matters to Northern Ireland. Does this assurance by the Government mean that the new system of political control of policing in Northern Ireland is equally committed to bringing a measure before the Stormont Assembly to end 50:50 recruitment if 30 per cent of the police service becomes Roman Catholic? Or is this a meaningless guarantee by the Government because by that time all these matters will have been transferred to the control of the Northern Ireland Assembly and its new Minister? The other aspect of this order is lateral entry, whereby efforts are to be made to find Roman Catholic recruits from other existing forces. Police officers must be Roman Catholic and in other forces. This means, in practice, the southern Irish police system—the Garda Siochana. I would like to know how many Roman Catholics from the Garda Siochana have now been enrolled into the police service in Northern Ireland and how many Roman Catholic members from various police forces within Great Britain have also been transferred into the police service in Northern Ireland. Finally, I accept this order on the assurance that within a year or so it will cease to operate in practice. I was interested to hear it being welcomed by the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Opposition, and yet not welcomed by my noble friend and colleague Lord Laird. They belong to two political parties that are now joined together in one political system. I find it confusing that they belong to one electoral system yet take different views on things such as the renewal of this order and even the devolution of policing to Stormont in Northern Ireland.