Clause 71 - Local community safety partnerships
Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill
7:15 pm
Mr Des Browne (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office; Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Labour)
There are two ways in which the amendment can be approached. There are those who encourage a partnership and a broad approach—that is the position of those who drafted the amendment and who seem to be reassured that the Secretary of State intends to be inclusive and to generate a partnership that properly reflects those who should be involved in determining the shape of the application
for a strategy for community safety. There is no one-size-fits-all model of how community safety should operate in Northern Ireland. The order-making powers are necessary because we have to ensure maximum flexibility to tailor the delivery of work in the field of community safety to the needs of each community.
I have already made it clear that the changes, post the review recommendations, have introduced new levels of uncertainty, which were principally generated by the Executive's review of local administration. That made it inappropriate to set out the shape of community safety policing partnerships or community safety partnerships in the way in which the hon. Member for North Down suggested. That will need to be done once the review recommendations have been implemented and there is a settled environment in which the partnerships can operate. Whether that will be done in Parliament or whether the Assembly will do it depends on when the review concludes and when its recommendations are implemented.