My Lords, the Northern Ireland (Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan) Bill delivers key aspects of the December 2014 Stormont House agreement and the November 2015 fresh start agreement. I see our job here this evening as helping to ensure that these agreements are implemented and that another step is taken towards a more peaceful, prosperous and stable Northern Ireland where the devolved institutions continue to work for everyone and paramilitary activity is eradicated once and for all.
By way of context, the Stormont House agreement followed some 10 weeks of talks between the Government, the five largest parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Irish Government on matters for which they have responsibility under the long-established three-stranded approach to Northern Ireland affairs. It dealt with many of the most difficult challenges facing Northern Ireland, including welfare reform, measures to deal with the legacy of the Troubles, improvements
to the workings of devolution and new arrangements to examine long-standing issues such as flags and parading.
However, by last summer implementation of the Stormont House agreement—in particular, welfare reform—had stalled. This lack of agreement severely undermined the Executive’s finances, putting increasing pressure on funding for public services. This political and financial impasse was then compounded by two paramilitary murders in Belfast, precipitating a serious breakdown in Executive relations. Confronted by the very real risk of the devolved institutions collapsing and a return to direct rule, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland convened a further round of cross-party talks.
Following 10 weeks of discussion, on 17 November a way forward was announced on the two key issues the talks were convened to address: first, implementation of the Stormont House agreement, itself a government manifesto commitment, and, secondly, dealing with the continued and malign impact of paramilitary activity on Northern Ireland society.
The fresh start agreement is a very significant step forward on both counts. The agreement takes the Northern Ireland political parties further than ever before in their determination to see a complete end to paramilitary activity, placing obligations on Assembly Members to work together to rid society of paramilitary activity and to tackle organised crime. It helps to ensure the fiscal sustainability of the Executive, underpinned by up to half a billion pounds of extra spending power on top of the £2 billion in the Stormont House agreement. Crucially, it was instrumental in bringing to an end a crisis that had threatened the survival of the devolved institutions which have remained stable since 2007, the longest period of unbroken devolved government since the old Stormont Parliament was dissolved back in 1972.
Good progress has already been made in implementing the fresh start agreement. In November, this House considered and passed the Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Bill and the accompanying Order in Council was passed in early December. A joint agency task force has been set up to tackle cross-jurisdictional organised crime, and a panel of respected figures, including the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, has been appointed to consider the issue of continued paramilitary activity and to make recommendations on a strategy for disbanding paramilitary groups by the end of May. Work is also under way to appoint a new commission on flags and parades. The Assembly has passed legislation to make significant reforms to its institutions, reducing the number of Executive departments and Members of the Legislative Assembly. The implementation of the fresh start agreement is therefore proceeding apace and the Government, Executive and Irish Government have shown a real commitment to make the agreement work and deliver on their commitments.
This Bill is the UK Government’s next step towards full implementation of the fresh start agreement, and has the support of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which gave cross-party consent on 15 March in respect of the transferred matters contained in the Bill. A number of commitments need to be delivered through legislation, and the Bill achieves that. It makes provision
for a new independent reporting commission, an international body to be established through a treaty with the Irish Government, the objective of which will be to promote progress towards ending paramilitary activity. It makes provision to promote fiscal transparency and support the Executive to deliver a stable and sustainable budget; for additional commitments in the pledge of office taken by Executive Ministers relating to tackling organised crime and paramilitarism, and the introduction of a parallel undertaking for Members of the Assembly; and to extend the time available for agreeing a programme for government and appointing Executive Ministers after an election.
Those last two measures are of course linked to the timing of the forthcoming Assembly election. The Government are therefore seeking Parliament’s agreement for the Bill to proceed through its parliamentary scrutiny faster than usual to ensure that the enhanced pledge of office and new undertaking, as well as the extension of the time available for ministerial appointments, are in place in time for the Assembly’s return. I am grateful to the parties opposite for their support on this.
With noble Lords’ permission, before I turn in more detail to the measures in the Bill, I shall address an issue that formed an important part of the Fresh Start talks but which does not feature in this legislation: the establishment of new bodies to deal with the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. I reassure noble Lords that this issue is of paramount importance to the Government, and it is clear that it is important to noble Lords from across the Chamber as well. In discussions that I have had in the run-up to today’s debate, many noble Lords have raised this issue. I have therefore written offering an open briefing session, to take place tomorrow afternoon. I hope to see many noble Lords there, and indeed the response has already been very positive.
The Government continue to believe that the provisions outlined in the Stormont House agreement, which themselves build upon the significant work that the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Eames, took forward in his role as co-chair of the Consultative Group on the Past, represent the best chance for dealing with the past in a way that will deliver significantly better outcomes for victims and survivors. Let us never forget that it was the victims and survivors who suffered more than anyone else as a result of the Troubles. The new institutions will therefore be balanced, proportionate, transparent, fair and equitable. They will allow Northern Ireland to move forward, and have the needs of victims and survivors at their heart. Intensive work therefore continues with victims’ representatives and others on finding a way to build the broad consensus needed to legislate. I hope very much that legislation to establish the legacy institutions in a separate Bill will be brought forward once the necessary consensus has been achieved.
I turn to the measures in the Bill before the House today. Clauses 1 to 5 relate to the independent reporting commission. The objective of this new commission will be to promote progress towards ending paramilitary activity connected with Northern Ireland. It will therefore fulfil an important role in furtherance of this Government’s commitment to challenging all paramilitary activity and associated criminality. The commission will be an
international body, established through an agreement with the Irish Government. Work on the agreement is at an advanced stage and, once agreed with the new Irish Government, it will be laid before Parliament for scrutiny under the arrangements in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. It will be independent of the sponsoring Governments and will have a significant degree of discretion in fulfilling its functions, which are to report on progress towards ending paramilitary activity, including on implementation of measures taken by the Government, the Executive and the Irish Government to tackle paramilitarism, and to consult a wide range of stakeholders in fulfilling this role. The Bill also outlines both the legal privileges which the commission will enjoy and the duties under which it will operate. Further detail on the establishment and operation of the commission will be set out in secondary legislation in due course.
At this juncture I should also mention that last week I responded to the very helpful comments of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee on the Bill. I have placed a copy of my response in the House Library and have published it on the Northern Ireland Office website.
The Bill also amends the pledge of office for Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive. The enhanced pledge reflects the commitments in the fresh start agreement to give unequivocal support for the rule of law and to work collectively to achieve a society free of paramilitarism. The Bill will also introduce for the first time a similar undertaking for all Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
In the other place, there was much discussion of the question of possible sanctions for breaching the new undertaking. This is an important point and I have absolutely no doubt that we will return to it during discussions in this House. The Government are firmly of the opinion that it would not be appropriate for us at Westminster to pre-empt the Assembly’s own consideration of this issue and prescribe specific sanctions or the means by which they should be taken forward. Rightly, this is a question for the Northern Ireland Assembly and should be decided by that legislative body with the appropriate cross-party and cross-community consensus. There are established mechanisms by which the Assembly holds MLAs to account, including for their adherence to the Assembly code of conduct, and the Assembly has the necessary powers to impose sanctions, should it decide that these are required.
The Bill also extends the time available for the allocation of ministerial positions in the Executive from seven to 14 days after the Assembly first meets following an election. This change was first proposed in the 2014 Stormont House agreement and was confirmed in the recent fresh start agreement. At present, Northern Ireland Executive ministerial positions must be allocated within seven calendar days after the first meeting of the Assembly, as required by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This extension will therefore allow the parties more time to agree a shared programme for government on a cross-party basis prior to the allocation of ministerial positions following the upcoming elections and all future elections.
Finally, the fresh start agreement contains a clear commitment for the UK Government to legislate to increase fiscal transparency, helping the Executive deliver affordable and sustainable budgets. The Bill therefore requires that, when delivering a draft Budget, the Executive Finance Minister must demonstrate that the amount of government funding required by the draft Budget does not exceed what is available.
As I have outlined, the measures included in this Bill are the product of extensive cross-party talks conducted over the 10 weeks leading up to the fresh start agreement. They have the support of the Executive and the Assembly, which were involved in the drafting of the provisions, and a legislative consent Motion in respect of the transferred matters in the Bill received cross-party support in the Assembly, as I said, on 15 March.
The Bill is a crucial stage in the full implementation of the Stormont House and fresh start agreements, which, taken together, have the potential to resolve some of the most difficult challenges facing Northern Ireland and help us secure a more peaceful, stable and prosperous future for all the people who live in Northern Ireland. I beg to move.
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