Clause 14
Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill
10:00 am
Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
We can only speculate about arguments that might have been put to the Committee. However, I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will agree that we need to arrive at a point in Northern Ireland at which all the relevant bodies—whether the Human Rights Commission or the Police Service of Northern Ireland—serve the interest of all communities there, and are perceived to be doing so.
In conclusion, the fines in the clause are appropriate. Furthermore, it is important that we have an exclusion for matters of national security intelligence because it would be quite wrong if the commission were in a position to force intelligence to be passed into its hands and into the public domain. It is therefore important that we have the relevant restriction in place.