Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I support the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Lester. Surely, it should be possible to draft an amendment to provide that where an investigation has begun properly after the date—there should be no question about the appropriateness of the investigation—it should be possible for the commission to acquire or to insist on the provision of relevant documents which came into existence beyond that date if they have a bearing on the investigation. I would think that that would be a fairly easy and straightforward amendment to draft, which would fit within the framework that the Minister has described; that is, essentially forward looking. Incidents and situations will not develop in neat little packages and there will be relevant histories, so it is a perfectly reasonable proposition. I agree with the framework as spelt out by the Minister; namely, that the commission’s new power should be forward looking, not backward. With regard to new situations and problems arising in the future, I accept that those new situations will have a past and it may be that a proper investigation of a situation arising will require going into that past to some extent. It should be possible to frame that. I should also say, parenthetically, that it seems to me that in framing these provisions to be forward looking, not backward looking, the Government are learning from the mistakes that they made with regard to the police ombudsman. I am very glad to see them correcting the mistake in this context and I hope that they will take the opportunity we offered them earlier this week to correct the other mistakes that have been made in that context too.