Clause 2 - Certification commissioner
Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill
9:00 am
I take the hon. Lady’s point. It might well be that the Government should support our amendment because they might not find a person who would take the job that they will be asking someone to do. The argument cuts both ways. People might be reluctant to take on the role, given that every victims’ group known to us has described the Bill as offensive. In proposing the amendment, we acknowledge that it will be hard to find people who might accept the job and it will certainly be hard to find any one person in Northern Ireland who could command widespread acceptance in the north. The fact is that, unlike the provision for the appeals commissioners, clause 2 does not require the Secretary of State to appoint someone who would command widespread acceptance in the north to the post of certification commissioner.
Our amendments would provide for a number of certification commissioners. That would allow for a suitable international dimension and for the appointment of people from throughout these islands as well. Our proposal is entirely consistent with the provision that the Government have made elsewhere in the Bill in respect of the appeals commissioners. We ask only that the Government are consistent with their own standards and principles and we offer amendments Nos. 178 and 179 in that spirit. The other amendments are all simply consequential, pluralizing all the references to the certification commissioner or the commissioner elsewhere in the Bill.