Clause 19 - Fixed-term appointments
Police (Northern Ireland) Bill [Lords]
8:55 am
Ms Jane Kennedy (Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office; Liverpool, Wavertree, Labour)
What a pleasure it is to return to the calm and peace of a Standing Committee under your chairmanship, Mr. Benton, after the turmoil and
excitement of last Monday and Tuesday, and, to judge from comments made earlier, Thursday, too.
The hon. Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) asked about our intentions on Report. The discussions are still ongoing, and I do not know whether there has been a final agreement through the usual channels. It would be dishonest to duck the issue altogether, so I flag it up that we may consider new matters on Report. I am happy to discuss that in greater detail with the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Solihull (Mr. Taylor) at a more private moment.
As the hon. Member for Spelthorne said, the amendments would extend from three years to five the fixed-term period available to the Chief Constable to make appointments to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It might help if I set the proposal in context. The British and Irish Governments signed an intergovernmental agreement on policing co-operation in April 2002 in which we committed ourselves, among other things, to introducing the necessary administrative and legislative measures to enable secondments from one police service to the other for periods not exceeding three years.
The three-year period was agreed by the Chief Constable of the PSNI and the chief commissioner of the Garda Síochana as the appropriate maximum for an officer to be seconded to the other police service. The hon. Member for Spelthorne made a strong point in arguing persuasively that, in his experience, which I accept, three years does not get the best out of a secondee in these circumstances. However, in the context that we are discussing the proposal, we should remember that secondees will return to their parent police service at the end of their secondment and retain the terms and conditions of their parent service during that period. In the discussions on whether three years is appropriate, it became clear that secondments from GB services to the PSNI that may already take place under the Police Act 1996 are generally of a similar, three-year duration or shorter. They do not tend to be longer.
Given that the three-year period specified in clause 19 will give effect to the intergovernmental commitment made by the Government on the professional advice of the Chief Constable, it would not be appropriate to extend the period to five years. I therefore invite the hon. Member for Spelthorne not to press his amendment.
The hon. Gentleman, in proposing amendments Nos. 118 and 119, railed against the Government's provisions, as we did in opposition. Taken together, the amendments would remove the order-making power in proposed new section 36A(4). It should be remembered that, before making an order under the powers, the Secretary of State would be required to consult the Policing Board and the Police Association.
I emphasise that we expect to make little recourse to the provision and that we are likely to make only a few modest modifications, whether wearing jackboots or not. However, there are issues still to be resolved, which may require modifications to the relevant legislation. For example, we might want to allow Garda officers to be represented by members of their
association—the Garda Representative Association—in any disciplinary hearings in which they are involved. That might require an amendment to the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998.
There may be other issues that have not yet come to light or that might arise if the provision is used to facilitate fixed-term secondments from other police services. We therefore believe that it is prudent to ensure that we can make the necessary provision to facilitate sensible arrangements. Clause 19 requires the Secretary of State to consult the board and the Police Association before making any such provisions, and I assure Members that we would take careful note of the results of such consultations. I therefore invite the hon. Gentleman to withdraw his amendment.