Clause 2 - Short title and extent
Criminal Law (Amendment) (Householder Protection) Bill
10:30 am
Lady Lady Hermon (North Down, UUP)
I beg to move amendment No. 11, in clause 2, page 1, line 17, leave out ‘only’ and insert ‘and Northern Ireland.’.
Despite the tone of my voice, I have the highest regard for the Minister. I feel very strongly about the measures that we are discussing. The republican ceasefire has been in place for more than 10 years, as has the ceasefire of the loyalist paramilitaries, and in that time there has been a dramatic increase in burglaries—very serious burglaries—across Northern Ireland. Many of those burglaries have been accompanied by extreme violence towards the occupants, in particular elderly occupants.
I told the Minister that that is a serious problem. My father lives on an isolated farm in County Tyrone. He lives in the Mid-Ulster constituency and his MP is a member of Sinn Fein who is not here to speak up for pensioners or farmers, or on any other issue. My father is 88 and lives on his own. He is much more apprehensive now about being burgled in his home than he was about being attacked in the 30 years of a terrorist campaign in Northern Ireland. That is typical of the view of many elderly people across Northern Ireland, particularly those who live on remote, isolated farms. I was therefore disappointed—I chide the hon. Member for Newark about this ever so gently—that the Bill’s provisions do not extend to Northern Ireland. They should do.
I had great respect for the previous Home Secretary. It is a measure of the regard in which he was held in Northern Ireland that, at an Ulster Unionist party conference, the mention of the previous Home Secretary received a round of applause, whereas the party leader did not get a round of applause at a particular point. The previous Home Secretary made it his business to ensure that there was uniformity and certainty in sentencing and in the law across this kingdom. The Belfast agreement is in place, which assured the people of Northern Ireland that Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom unless and until they voted otherwise. The people of Northern Ireland expect to be treated just the same as those in Brighton, Newark or north Devon.
During my short time in the House—I entered in 2001—serving as a Member of Parliament has been a privilege and honour. I have loved the job, but I have become increasingly concerned about the lack of joined-up thinking between the Home Office—there is a good Home Office team, something that I would say behind the Minister’s back as well as to his face—and the criminal justice division of the Northern Ireland Office. That is not a criticism of the Minister, but it appears that there is a cadre of officials involved and, when we discuss criminal law—be it on domestic violence or other matters—Northern Ireland lags behind.
Unfortunately, the Northern Ireland Assembly, of which I was hugely supportive, was suspended for various reasons in October 2002, well over two years ago. We have a democratic deficit in Northern Ireland but, more to the point, even when we had the Assembly, responsibility for criminal law was not devolved and remained in this place.
When we are dealing with a private Member’s Bill on an issue as important as clarifying the law on whether a homeowner would be prosecuted in the circumstances in question, it behoves both the Government and the Opposition—whichever party is in those places after the general election—to bear in mind the responsibility of this Government to the people of Northern Ireland.
When criminal justice legislation is introduced, Northern Ireland should not be shelved by an Order in Council that goes through a Committee where, although I may talk until I am blue in the face, not a dot or comma can be changed. Northern Ireland’s criminal law should instead be dealt with in primary legislation, which should be debated in the House in line with other primary legislation on criminal justice, and it should receive equal scrutiny.