Clause 22
Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill
2:00 pm
Lembit Öpik (Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Affairs; Montgomeryshire, Liberal Democrat)
I, too, think that the words
“or the maintenance of order”
in clause 22(1) are extremely broad. That could be used as a justification for almost any entry. Taken in association with subsection (2), which states that a
“constable may not rely on subsection (1) to enter a building unless...it is not reasonably practicable to obtain authorisation”,
it could give constables wide latitude to enter buildings. It also seems that clause 24 is unnecessary. If the Minister insists on the broad definition under clause 22, I cannot see why a subset of that definition enjoys its own clause in clause 24.