Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

The case made by the noble Lord and the noble Baroness can be seductive, but one has to ask, if a matter has been sufficiently investigated, how come another publicly funded body with finite resources should duplicate the investigation? We are not talking about a cursory glance at the issue; the Bill says that the matter has been ““sufficiently investigated””. I am not sure why the commission itself, if it concluded that a matter had been sufficiently investigated, would want to proceed. The significant new powers we are extending add value to the protection of human rights in Northern Ireland. We do not think that would be achieved by investigating matters in a duplicated fashion, particularly if they have been sufficiently investigated. It is worth noting that the provisions will allow a court to cancel a notice seeking to compel evidence on the grounds that it is unreasonable. We have not invented that for the Bill; it mirrors the provisions in the Equality Act 2006, which established the Commission for Equality and Human Rights in Great Britain. There is a direct, comparable situation here. One has to take account of the special circumstances in Northern Ireland, but, all things being equal, the objective is to make these systems as comparable as possible. That is quite reasonable. A court could consider whether the fact that a matter had been sufficiently investigated made a further investigation unreasonable. As a result, the amendment would remove the duty on the commission to conclude that a matter had not already been sufficiently investigated, but would not remove the ability of a court to consider that as grounds for appeal against the notice seeking to compel evidence. These are two sides of the coin. As I say, our provision mirrors the Equality Act 2006, which applies to Great Britain. There cannot be a justifiable reason for making it different for Northern Ireland in circumstances where—I emphasise—a matter has been sufficiently investigated in the past by another obviously competent body.