Clause 1
Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill
10:45 am
Lembit Öpik (Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Affairs; Montgomeryshire, Liberal Democrat)
As long as we exercise self-restraint in how we present our arguments, we can probably move through the Bill quite fast. That is not to say that the debate is to be insignificant, though.
Amendment No. 1 is intended to establish why it is the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland who will take the decision on whether a trial is to be conducted with or without a jury. Amendment No. 2 is simply a grammatical amendment consequential to that.
In other pieces of legislation that make provision for non-jury trial it is the court that ultimately decides whether the trial is to be conducted with or without a jury, as is the case in section 44 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. It allows the prosecution to apply to the court for a trial to be conducted without a jury if there is a danger of jury tampering. As that provision extends to Northern Ireland, would it not make sense for the same type of procedure to apply in all circumstances where it might be necessary to conduct a trial without a jury? Why have the Government made the distinction between cases where there is a danger of jury tampering and cases that relate to offences carried out by proscribed organisations? Surely, there is likely to be an overlap. It seems highly probable, in fact, that jurors considering terrorist cases could be intimidated. In which case, which procedure should be used—the certification measure outlined in the Bill or the measure in the 2003 Act? In essence, two pieces of legislation are attempting to do the same thing but in a different way.
As we said on Second Reading, we are pleased that the presumption will now be in favour of jury trial in terrorist cases in Northern Ireland. That is long overdue and we are pleased that the Government have attempted to go some way to righting that wrong. However, for there to be confidence that there will be a real change, the processes need to be open and transparent. Amendment No. 1 is particularly important because in clause 7 there is no right of appeal against a decision of the DPP. When we reach that clause, I will make it clear to the Minister that it is the one part of the Bill that is a deal-breaker, and we will vote against the Bill on Third Reading if the Government do not alter the situation.
For us, and I presume for the Social and Democratic Labour party, although I will obviously leave it the hon. Member for Foyle to make his own representations, there is a consequential element to clause 2. Under amendment No. 1, the prosecution would apply to a court for a non-jury trial and no certificate would lodged with the DPP, so clause 2 would not be needed. As the SDLP has objected entirely to clause 1, I imagine that it would agree that there is no need for clause 2.
New clause 1 is consequential on us leaving out clause 2. It puts in place a procedure for the prosecution to make an application to the court for a trial to be held without a jury. That is completely logical on the basis of the 2003 Act and is completely consistent with attempting to normalise the justice procedures in Northern Ireland. It also allows parties to the hearing at which an application is determined the opportunity to make representations in respect of that application. That ties in with clause 7, and we will discuss our objections to that clause in detail later. However, if clause 7 is allowed to remain in the Bill, the new clause would at least allow representations to be heard. If there is to be no ability to appeal, at the very least the parties to an application should be able to make representations.
I hope I have made my points reasonably succinctly. However, they do need an explicit response from the Minister. I do not see that there can be any objections to new clause 1 even if the Government are intent on ignoring our concerns about clause 7. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s views.