Clause 19 - Fixed-term appointments
Police (Northern Ireland) Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
Mr David Wilshire (Spelthorne, Conservative)
I shall be brief, as we have considered the details of the proposal.
I urge the Government to reflect on the issues raised during this sitting and to ask themselves whether clause 19 needs an addition to make it clear that it is
about seconding people within police services. At present, that is not clear, as the Committee's debates have reflected. Debates on the clause could have been shorter if there had been more clarity in the Bill or the explanatory notes. I ask the Government to bear in mind that people will go back to the Bill after it has been enacted, and to make its intentions crystal clear.
We have not considered elsewhere the issue of secondment out of the PSNI, as that may have been out of order, but we should consider it if the reasons why it is a good idea to second in from the Garda Síochana to the PSNI are valid. I would not dissent in principle from any of them. We have not, however, given due attention to a problem this morning, probably because it would have fallen too obviously out of order, but we must insist that the secondment is a two-way process. Otherwise, it will raise suspicions in some sections of the community about what is really happening and whether a foreign police service is being introduced into Northern Ireland with the intention of making it similar to that which exists in the Irish Republic, which would have a counter-productive effect.
The Government may like to reflect—I certainly will—on whether a further amendment to limit the number of secondees coming in to the number going out might be appropriate on Report. The clause still requires clarification, but that is not enough to justify opposing it. A further amendment might help make the Bill as a whole more acceptable to the overwhelming majority of people, rather than to one section of society, in Northern Ireland. I look forward to hearing the Government's views on a two-way process.