Police (Northern Ireland) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I cannot do that today, but when either I or whoever else on behalf of the Government address the renewal of the order, I can assure the noble Baroness that I will come to the House armed with the necessary statistics. Indeed, if we can we shall make them available before the debate. That makes sense because, as the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, said, the community in Northern Ireland is changing. Enormous numbers of people from eastern Europe have arrived; there is a substantial Chinese community and others. We want a police service that represents as widely as possible the society it serves. The Patten report highlighted that the overwhelming issue was one of Catholic and non-Catholic representation, but the other issues of gender and ethnicity are also important. The noble Lord, Lord Laird, has brought forward a Private Member’s Bill. It is not a government Bill and therefore it is not my job to respond to its detailed minutiae, it is only to say where the Government stand. We have considered the Bill carefully, but we are against it. Nevertheless, this House does not vote on the Second Reading of Private Member’s Bills. This is a major policy area, but it is clear from our analysis that if we were to abandon the 50:50 policy, we would not achieve the Government’s aim of increasing Catholic participation to 30 per cent by 2010–11. Indeed, if the policy were to be abandoned now, our projections indicate that we would be likely to see a Catholic composition of less than 22 per cent. Bearing in mind the changing culture, greater stability and the wider acceptance of the police in Northern Ireland, it is important to ensure that people do not get the wrong idea. The noble Lord, Lord Laird, is absolutely entitled to bring forward his Bill, and I would fight to the end to ensure that Back Benchers—I will be one myself again one day—have the right to promote legislation. But I have to say to the people of Northern Ireland that this Bill will not become an Act. I want the 50,000, the people who have been recruited, as well as the people who have not been successful in being recruited—who are in the pool and awaiting the coming change—to understand the position. Whatever happens to the noble Lord’s Bill as it goes through all its stages in this House, it will not become an Act of Parliament, certainly in this Session. That is because it will not get through the House of Commons. There is a simple reason for that: it is a Private Member’s Bill. All Private Members’ days in the House of Commons have been allocated and balloted Bills take priority. I have checked the figures. Every single available Private Member’s day in the Commons is stacked with Bills from Members of the Commons. This one would come at the end and will have no time allocated to it. Therefore the Government will object to it. So there is no prospect of this Bill becoming law. I do not want any scare stories run in the Northern Ireland press that because this Bill had a Second Reading today, it will become an Act and the 50:50 policy will be abandoned. It will not, because this Bill will not become an Act of Parliament during this Session. It cannot get through the other House of Parliament. I have to make that absolutely clear. Notwithstanding that, it is right that the issue is debated. Whatever happens on the miscellaneous provisions Bill, we will be able to debate the issue in rather more detail when we come to renew the order next year. Bearing that in mind, while I cannot recommend that the House supports the Bill, of course it does not object to the Second Reading of Private Member’s Bills.