Clause 6 - Cancellation of certificate
Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill
7:15 pm
Will the Minister read on? The rest of clause 6 makes it clear that the Secretary of State, in cancelling a certificate, can choose to ensure that no reasons are given. Remember, clause 6 talks only about reasons possibly being offered when a certificate is cancelled.
The Minister told us that reasons would be given for the Secretary of State exercising discretion not to cancel a certificate. That is when the Minister said that reasons would be on the public record and that all sorts of people would be notified.
After all, this clause refers to organisations being specified. As we know from the Secretary of State’s exercise of his power of specification, that is entirely at the Secretary of State’s discretion and he was able, through the summer, literally to let the Ulster Volunteer Force away with murder without stating why he would not specify it. It was not as though the UVF denied that it was carrying out the murders; it was boasting that it had done them, and was indeed threatening more. However, for some unstated and unexplained reason, for the wider good of the peace process, there was no move to specify. The Secretary of State never gave reasons, either in public or in private. That would apply with this power as well.