Clause 25 - Removal of Attorney General
Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill
6:00 pm
Mr Des Browne (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office; Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Labour)
As the hon. Member for Reigate says, amendment No. 170 would require the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, rather than the Lord Chancellor, to select members of the removal tribunal. The membership of the tribunal was carefully chosen to ensure that the question of whether the Attorney-General should be removed from office would be decided impartially and independently. That is why the arguments of the hon. Member for Reigate are, with respect, not applicable. Judges from England, Wales and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland, are chosen to make up the tribunal. The person who
chooses those judges does not require knowledge of Northern Ireland; he requires knowledge of judges and their abilities outside of Northern Ireland.
The hon. Gentleman's point about the framing of the amendment is correct. There would be a manifest conflict of interest if the potential plaintiff selected the tribunal's membership. There is an additional point, to which I have alluded. Given that the members of the tribunal will be drawn from outside Northern Ireland, it is unlikely that the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister would have the necessary knowledge to select them. On the basis of the hon. Gentleman's own logic, whoever holds the office of Lord Chancellor is far more likely to have the knowledge to select the membership than the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. For practical reasons, he is the most appropriate person. I have other points to make on the involvement of the First Minister and the Deputy Minister in the removal tribunal but they are adequately summed up by the points that the hon. Member for Reigate made about the conflict of interests.