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Donate to our crowdfunderBaroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, it is, of course, extremely disappointing that we are still here today debating the necessity for the Bill as it touches on terrorism matters in Northern Ireland. But, as we have heard, it is still important to ensure that terrorism is fought wherever it appears—and, sadly, Northern Ireland has known its full horror for far too many years. That is why we are here to extend, yet...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I, too, will be mercifully brief. I thank the Minister for bringing the order to the House. As I understand it, both the London Assembly and Transport for London say there is nothing to say about this order. It is simply there to bring Transport for London in line with local authorities as far as best value on transport procurement is concerned. The position of TfL is often...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, is the Minister aware that police authorities up and down the land are very concerned about the proposals? She has not been able to tell the House when the decision might be made on these proposals, and there is therefore great uncertainty about the forces that will be merged. When will the Minister be able to assure us that those decisions will be made and tell us what the costs...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing forward this order, and I have just a couple of very short questions. We have in the past been promised that all responses to consultations would be published on the departmental website, but, when my honourable friend in another place was discussing this order in Committee, she was unable to access the departmental website to look at them. Has this...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I apologise for having very little voice. Before I respond to the order, I am sure that the whole House will be delighted to welcome the news about the US philanthropy award for the noble Baroness, Lady Blood, who is now out in Texas. She has received this prestigious award for her leadership and contribution to the integrated education fund. I am sure that the whole House will want...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I thank the Minister and the department for ensuring that the responses to the consultation on this issue have been published on the departmental website. That has been extremely useful in aiding our deliberations on this order today. However, after reading the responses to the consultation, we are very concerned that the Government are continuing to press ahead with the order. None...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I too thank the Minister for introducing the order. It will take longer to achieve total decommissioning than we had hoped so the amnesty must be extended. It has always been recognised that decommissioning is a process—no one ever expected the paramilitaries to decommission all their weapons at once. However, the Good Friday agreement talks about the total disarmament of all...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, how does the Minister believe that accountability and the tripartite structure can be improved by the proposed amalgamations of police forces?
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I too begin by congratulating the noble Viscount, Lord Tenby, on securing this important debate today. He and I enjoy talking about policing, and his long experience as a magistrate and police authority member in Hampshire has illustrated his great knowledge of, and continuing interest in, the policing service of our country. I join other noble Lords in welcoming the Minister back...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Laird, for introducing the Bill, as it is always useful to revisit these issues. We on these Benches have spoken about our concern at the 50:50 recruitment policy, and we are particularly concerned at the effect that the policy has had on ethnic minority candidates for the police. Anecdotally, in 2003 my honourable friend the Member for Montgomeryshire...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for allowing me to intervene when time is short. Would he address the particular concern I raised? As he was coming to a close, I did not think that he would touch on it. Will he look at ways to ensure that those who we need to recruit as a matter of urgency are not lumped in with the others? They should not be put in with the applicants who come under...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, notwithstanding the fact that the Minister has told us that Hazel Blears will look carefully at this, is she able to tell us why the drop-out rate for black and ethnic minority women officers at probationary stage is so high? If she is unable to tell us now, will she undertake to write to me?
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I apologise to the Minister for missing the first few seconds of his opening remarks. Fortunately I did not miss the beginning of his main points. I wish to place on record my great support for my noble friend Lord Smith of Clifton in his amendment to this order. As we have already heard, the Local Government Association of Northern Ireland and the majority of Northern Ireland...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister, who with his usual prescience has already answered some of the questions I was going to put to him. I hope that my remarks will be a little more optimistic than those we have heard from the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran. When we responded to the Minister's Statement last week we gave a general welcome to the Bill before us today. It is good to see that there...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: I wish to speak to Amendments Nos. 3 and 4. As I understand it, and following what the noble Lord, Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, has just said, the d'Hondt mechanism for choosing Ministers depends on a party's numbers. Numbers have never been my great forte so I find that system difficult to understand. But as I understand it, if d'Hondt was run using the strength of the parties as they were in...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: moved Amendment No. 5: Page 5, line 20, at end insert— "Assembly control of Orders in Council 7 For paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the 2000 Act substitute— "Parliamentary and Assembly control of Orders in Council 2 (1) Except where sub-paragraph (2) applies, an Order in Council may not be made under paragraph 1(1) unless each of the following conditions is met— (a) condition 1 is that a...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: When the Bill was discussed in another place, it attracted support from all the Opposition parties, including all the Northern Ireland parties represented on the Committee. Clause 1(1)(c) allows the Secretary of State to refer such other matters as he thinks fit to the interim Assembly. Paragraph 8 of the joint statement made on 6 April by the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach states that:...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: First, I am very grateful for the support of Members of the Committee who have taken part in this mini-debate on the amendment. I am also very grateful to the Minister for his full and thoughtful response and his expression of sympathy—not seductiveness—for the intention behind the amendment. He made a very worthwhile and timely speech and I am most grateful for that. Of course, we are...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: rose to ask Her Majesty's Government what effect the plans to merge the 43 police forces in England and Wales will have on the fight against crime. My Lords, I live in the beautiful rural area of north Yorkshire. We are blessed with an excellent police force led with imagination and vitality and which produces, year on year, extremely good results. For example, this year the detection rate is...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, that is exactly what happens now. How will it be different?