New Clause 2
Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill
3:45 pm
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point. I certainly have no case against it, but obviously I am trying to deal with the Northern Ireland-specific situation. MI5 will be given a distinctively different role in Northern Ireland from what it has had before. It is being given big new headquarters and an enhanced and enlarged role. Staff are being recruited, and it is deliberately recruiting people with special branch experience. We are particularly concerned about whether that is a means of creating some sort of “continuity” special branch. Remember, people in the old RUC special branch were involved in some of the worst aspects of collusion or complicity, which involved allowing things to happen when interventions by other officers might have prevented them.
We are trying to deal with Northern Ireland-specific issues. It is understood that MI5 will have a role in Northern Ireland in respect of not only international terrorism, but what is called domestic terrorism. The Minister’s arguments the other day were consistent with that. We want to make sure that the police ombudsman has the same reach in respect of those intelligence policing activities as it has on Northern Ireland citizens to deal with Northern Ireland affairs, and that that is not diminished.