Police (Northern Ireland) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:30 pm on 25 October 2000.

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Photo of Lord Cope of Berkeley Lord Cope of Berkeley Conservative 5:30, 25 October 2000

I am astonished at the response of the noble Baroness. Clearly there has been a failure of understanding here. We are all in favour of the kind of co-operation she has outlined. Indeed, I and several other noble Lords have mentioned similar areas of policing where co-operation should take place. However, a clause of this character is not in any way recommended in the Patten report.

The Patten report does recommend that the two police services should have written protocols, but that does not mean that the governments should negotiate what is to be done. The report draws on the model of the Kent police. In paragraph 18.6, it states:

"Kent police have signed several protocols with police services across the Channel".

Paragraph 18.7 goes on to say,

"We recommend that the two police services"-- the RUC and the Garda--should sign protocols between themselves. However, the clause does not acknowledge that. It concerns an agreement that is to be reached between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of Ireland rather than the police services.

Nothing is required in the Bill to permit the police services to make agreements; there are already quite a number of them. Furthermore, nothing is required from the Bill to permit co-operation on paedophiles or any of the other matters that we have discussed.