Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I expected the noble and learned Lord to reply as he did on Amendment No. 9. The person, whoever it is, will consider what other measures are already in place, such as the ones that the noble and learned Lord described, but there are no additional measures that are not in the Bill that would safely be considered in the context of Northern Ireland. I shall have to accept that he does not evento wish to write in the Bill his assurance that the DPP or the Attorney-General—whoever it may be—will naturally consider whether the safeguards already provided for juries will prove to be adequate. I am most grateful to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mayhew, and the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, for their support on Amendment No. 3, which proposes strengthening the Bill in regard to the use of the word ““suspects””. There is some hope, from the remarks that the noble and learned Lord made, that we could return to this with greater expectation that it would be favourably considered at Report. Certainly there could be cases where the trial is wrongly decided by the jury and a perverse verdict is reached or jury intimidation occurs without the safeguards in the Bill. But if you take that line, of course, we would still have the Diplock courts and we would not be contemplating these changes. As the noble and learned Lord explained, we would not be having this discussion if 7 per cent of witnesses did not experience harassment or intimidation. Well, we would not be having this discussion if we were not heading towards a peace process—a peace settlement—in which we hope these things will be relegated to the distant past. So there is scope in the Bill for a proper balance to be drawn between the obvious needs of safeguarding the process of justice and giving the DPP excessive powers, which we believe the clause at present contains. In the mean time, in the hope that we can return to this matter on Report and that we shall have a more favourable discussion than we have had now, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 4 to 9 not moved.]