Clause 14

Part of Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:00 am on 18 January 2007.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Paul Goggins Paul Goggins Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office 10:00, 18 January 2007

There is no duplication because, as the hon. Gentleman said, the vast majority of complaints will be handed over to the appropriate body and followed through in a thorough and timely way. The power enables us all to be certain that all complaints will be properly investigated and that an appropriate response will be made.

I want to make a little progress. I reassure the hon. Member for North Down, who at least once—twice, I think—mentioned the prospect of retired police officers being investigating by the Human Rights Commission when they had already been the subject of other investigations. The Bill includes a start date of January 2008, so the prospect of such retired officers being subjected to investigation by the commission does not arise. The commission is not part of the criminal justice system and therefore it is not appropriate that it should be under the scrutiny of an inspectorate. That is a simple matter of fact.

I want briefly to allude to one or possible arguments in relation to other propositions that might have been made. It is very important—we have included a relevant provision in the Bill—that the Human Rights Commission cannot force people to produce information that other legislation prevents them from providing. For example, if someone is prevented under data protection legislation from providing information, the Human Rights Commission cannot compel that person to provide it. The Bill makes that clear.

We spent considerable time explaining to the hon. Member for Foyle why we wanted to retain limited rights of appeal, whereas he encouraged the Committee to press for broader rights of appeal, and I am intrigued to note that some of his amendments would have removed rights of appeal altogether. I have made clear to the Committee the importance of a right of appeal against the issue of a notice, to preserve the right balance.

It is of course important that the Human Rights Commission cannot be in a position to compel the prosecution services, for example, to provide information. The prosecution service must make a judgment and it would be wrong for it to be forced to bring information about the decision in question before the Human Rights Commission.