I have greater hopes. I hope that with the success of the talks it will be us who will be appointing rather than the Minister. We might appoint the Minister to something after we have taken over.

It seems that there is one major criterion that must be considered when it is decided whether a person is appropriate to take on the task of the independent assessor. One would think that it would be deemed that the character of the individual would be the most important factor, and that a clear guideline would appear in legislation that no one with a criminal record should be appointed to the post. That guideline is not to be found in the Bill. One might think that some degree of experience in an area of the law, for example, might be necessary. Again, that is not set down in the Bill. Following the deep thinking of those who drafted the Bill, there is only one criterion, and it is a negative one: the Bill provides that the appointee should not have been a member of Her Majesty's forces for the past 20 years. It seems that it is all right if someone has been a criminal, but if he has been a soldier or an airman he is ineligible to take up the post.

I suggest that someone from another branch of the security forces might be the best person to be appointed. He would have some knowledge of the way in which Her Majesty's forces operate. He would know when the General Officer Commanding or any other senior officer was trying to pull the wool over his eyes. Such a person would perhaps not be so easily intimidated as others by the top brass within the army when he attempts to do business. It is wrong that there is a carte blanche refusal to have an independent assessor who has been in Her Majesty's forces within the past 20 years.

There is not much information about the way in which the independent assessor will undertake his responsibilities. We are aware of the various rights—perhaps "rights" is putting it too strongly—that the assessor will have to obtain papers and other pieces of information. To take up one of the terms used by the Minister, I think that they are generous. It would have been pleasant for those of us who were members of the Northern Ireland Assembly to have had the same rights, which would have enabled us to obtain documentation from Departments. The Minister is right that the position of the independent assessor will be such that it will not be possible to hold him back from doing his job by failing to supply him with adequate information. It seems, however—perhaps I have not studied the provisions closely enough—that the independent assessor will not be able to speak to the soldier against whom an allegation has been made, whether or not in the company of a senior officer, so that he can make an assessment of whatever the complaint may be. Will the Minister give us a more graphic description of the sort of job that he sees the independent assessor doing and the way that he might go about it?

Lords Amendment No. 12 would insert a new Clause 59, subsection (4)(d) of which says that the independent assessor may require the GOC to review any particular case". Can the independent assessor simply force the GOC to review the case, or can he go beyond that and force him to review it in a particular way? It would be fairly meaningless if, having looked at what the GOC might have done in a particular case and having found that he dealt with it inadequately, he asked them to review it and the GOC did just what he did before. The independent assessor would not convince people in the community of his worth if he did not have the power to encourage the GOC to go beyond simply rubber-stamping his decision.

I hope that the Minister will respond to those matters, but, above all, I press him, instead of introducing more and more legislation to tie down our security forces, to bring us legislation that will encompass a new, strong, tough security initiative against the terrorists so that the men who are really causing problems in Northern Ireland can be dealt with.