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

My Lords, I recognise what the noble Lord says and that some people in the community were hurt, as he puts it, by this policy. I also recognise what he says about the breadth of consultation. However, I think that we in this Chamber would all recognise that despite the hurt, which is regrettable, the policy has achieved the aims that we would all wish it to have. That is to the benefit of the whole community in Northern Ireland; it gives the community more confidence in the PSNI, and that can only be good for the whole community. The noble Lord also asked if the 50:50 provisions would transfer to the Northern Ireland Assembly. They will not. That is why I am confident when I say that if we get to 30 per cent before the end of the year, the Government will return to this Parliament and end the provisions immediately. General police recruitment, though, will be a matter for the devolved Government to consider. On the subject of lateral entry, I will write. There are various things to be said. It could be said that the scheme has not been as great a success as one would wish, but I will write to the noble Lord with chapter and verse and place a copy in the Library. I recognise from the debate today that the policy has discriminated against a small number of non-Catholics and it has had an impact on ethnic minorities. However, the positive progress to date has been possible only because of the temporary provisions. As the noble Baroness said earlier, we require a police service that reflects, and has the confidence of, the whole community. I and the Government agree that the provision should be ended as soon as possible. The time to do that is when the 30 per cent target has been achieved, and we believe that it will be reached by March 2011. If it is not reached by then, it is not reached, because this is the final order. I think we all agree, though, that all people in Northern Ireland will get behind the police service as it stands today and as it is going to be in 2011, and that they will support it as we do in this Chamber. We thank the service for the difficult work that it does. Motion agreed. Sitting suspended.