Clause 47 - Further provisions about functions
Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill
10:00 am
Mr Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire, Liberal Democrat)
I have a question for the hon. Member for Newry and Armagh. My main concern is the creeping influence of blame culture. There is an advantage to codifying the work of the inspector. However, precedent and etiquette will establish that, and the amendment may be over-prescriptive. Taking into account the comments of the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner), how does the hon. Gentleman respond to the concerns that the amendment would tie up the inspectors' resources in investigations that will probably turn up nothing, and that it assumes that organisations must be inspected to maintain probity? We should not send that sort of signal to those organisations or the public.