Clause 1 - Offences to which the Act applies
Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill
10:45 am
Laurence Robertson (Shadow Minister, Northern Ireland; Tewkesbury, Conservative)
The amendment deals with identifying the offences to which the Bill applies. The Terrorism Act 2000 gives quite a wide definition of terrorism. Under that Act, terrorism is action that
“involves serious violence against a person ... involves serious damage to property ... endangers a person’s life, other than that of the person committing the action ... creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public, or ... is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system.”
According to the Bill,
“An offence is one to which this Act applies if it is ... an offence under the law of any part of the United Kingdom committed before 10th April 1998 in connection with terrorism and the affairs of Northern Ireland”,
but then it adds
“(whether committed for terrorist purposes or not)”.
That seems to be a slightly strange phrase. The original definition of terrorism is wide, but that phrase makes it even wider and seems to create the potential to include most crimes if they are committed in connection with the affairs of Northern Ireland, even though they may not be committed for terrorist purposes. That is far too wide. All manner of offences could be included, provided that they were committed in connection with the affairs of Northern Ireland. I am sure it is not the intention of the Government for this Bill to cover all offences. That would mean, if taken to its logical conclusion, that every single offender would have the potential to escape punishment, regardless of what they did.