Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

moved Amendment No. 50: 50: After Clause 47 , insert the following new Clause— ““Community restorative justice schemes (1) The Secretary of State shall by order make regulations providing for community restorative justice schemes. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), such regulations shall provide for the relationship between such schemes and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland and the courts, and for the exclusion from the working of such schemes of persons with convictions for serious criminal offences. (3) It shall be unlawful for a scheme to operate other than in accordance with such regulations.”” The noble Lord said: This is the last matter in the Bill to be considered in Committee. Looking at the clock, I am happy to see that there is ample time to do so. Having said that, I assure the Committee that I have no intention of taking all the time available. I do not wish to detain Members of the Committee for any great length of time. However, there is a serious purpose behind the amendment, and I am sure that any number of technical objections could be raised against the drafting. It was drafted to raise the issue and to see whether the Government appreciated the need for some legislative framework here, and to identify some serious problems in this field. I shall not go into it at great length. Restorative justice has recently become very much a matter of general awareness. It seeks to deal with areas where the traditional legal system is not operating as effectively as it could, and to get a better resolution to situations by involving victims and trying to involve perpetrators in courses of action to resolve problems created by the offence, and getting to its root causes. Restorative justice is also seen as potentially effective in areas where normal policing does not always work effectively. One thinks of the problems on large housing developments, for example, where there is anti-social behaviour. The Government have brought in various measures to deal with that, such as anti-social behaviour orders, but they also have their limitations. Involving those whose criminal or anti-social conduct causes problems in a process with those who suffer from those activities is worthwhile. I do not want it to be thought that one approaches the concept of restorative justice in negative terms. Nor would I be negative about all manifestations of restorative justice in Northern Ireland. My friend and colleague Lady Herman is closely involved with the restorative justice scheme in a part of Bangor I know well; my mother lived there in the latter years of her life. The community restorative justice scheme in that district seems to be working in an effective and acceptable way. Unfortunately, however, that is not the case with all community restorative justice schemes in Northern Ireland. I want to focus on those that are not working so effectively, hence the amendment. The basic concept of community restorative justice, and how it is envisaged as operating on this side of the water, is that it will operate in co-operation with the existing legal system, trying to make it more effective and fill in the gaps. It is not seen as an alternative legal system on this side of the water, but in parts of Northern Ireland it is. Attempts have been made to operate it as an alternative legal system. It has been used, particularly in republican areas, as a means by which local republican activists regulate both anti-social and criminal behaviour in their districts. Now, ““republican activists”” is a euphemism that should be discarded. One should be frank about who one is talking about. We are talking about bully boys who, in the past, have used baseball bats and other implements to cause serious injuries to people. That is a form of kangaroo court with mob justice—the sort of thing that ought not to occur in a normal society. My concern which motivates this clause is that, instead of dealing clearly and unequivocally with this problem, the Northern Ireland Office is temporising with it. Community restorative justice schemes should be required to operate by clear principles—principles that observe human rights. At the end of the day, we should bear in mind that people’s human rights are being affected by the behaviour of these bully boys. Instead of the Northern Ireland Office insisting that this happens in that form, they are temporising, fudging and creating a situation where decisions are taken based on the choice of the person involved. The huge weakness of the existing guidelines is that if the offender agrees to participate in the community restorative justice scheme, that can take it out of any form of regulatory control. In these areas people will not have freedom of choice. The choice to participate in the scheme will invariably be coerced. That is the danger. What epitomises the difference between here in England and Wales and there in Northern Ireland is the point that I put to the noble Baroness, Lady Scotland, on Monday when she was praising community restorative justice schemes. I asked her whether it was contemplated in England and Wales, as is contemplated in Northern Ireland, that community restorative justice schemes would be administered by a double murderer. She said absolutely not. But that is what is happening in Northern Ireland. The republican community justice schemes are headed up by a former IRA activist—a former leading member of the IRA—who has been convicted of two murders, and it is quite probable that other offences should have been taken into consideration on his conviction. That is the problem. It is a very serious criticism of the republican movement. If they genuinely intend these schemes to be beneficial in regulating minor problems and anti-social behaviour in their areas, they could find decent people to head them up. They could find in their localities persons who do not have criminal records, have not been involved in violence and who have some professional skills in handling these matters—persons who could be looked on with some confidence in the local community. They exist in those areas, and I am sure that they would be quite happy to operate. But they do not do that. To head up these community restorative justice schemes, they put in persons who have a history; and not a good history. It is absolutely scandalous that the Northern Ireland Office has been so passive in its approach to these matters. I have tabled the amendment to point out the need for some legal regulation of this matter. The Northern Ireland Office currently proposes a set of guidelines without any legal basis, so that we will have part of the legal system contracted out to private enterprise of a sort that the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, would not approve of, without there being any legal regulation.That is quite unacceptable. There ought to be at least a legal basis for it and provisions in law that define the entry points and relationship with the legal system, and which makes sure that we exclude from the operation of these schemes persons with serious criminal offences. I deliberately chose the phrase ““serious criminal offences””, and I could easily have drafted something to say that anyone with a criminal offence should not be involved, but there is a distinction to be drawn. In saying ““serious criminal offences””, I have not put a definition clause in—but I mean it to be serious and, by any stretch of the imagination, murder is a serious criminal offence. I should like to know the Minister’s and the Northern Ireland Office’s position on the question of there being a legal basis and provisions to cover the key aspects. I want to hear the views of other noble Lords on the matter. I reserve the right to pursue this matter in a more detailed way. I realise that, with regard to the NIO’s operation of these matters, it is still developing its models and guidelines, and matters are still out to consultation. So we are in an evolving situation. But if we are going to have normality in Northern Ireland we must ensure that this area is covered properly. There cannot or ought not to be objections from republicans to insisting on this. If they are going to finally, completely and irrevocably renounce violence and support policing and the legal system, they cannot have any objection to a legal framework for community restorative justice schemes and for provisions that ensure some protection for the human rights of those who may be affected by their operation. At present there is not sufficient protection; we must have protection in law. The Bill provides the opportunity. I am disappointed that the Northern Ireland Office did not try to avail itself of that opportunity, so I am coming here to help the Government try to create a decent future and ensure that we do not have a situation created when, out of sight of most people but in certain neighbourhoods and localities, the bully boys continue to operate and enforce their mob justice and kangaroo courts. We cannot have that; that is not what the future of Northern Ireland should be. It should be, instead, a situation in which things operate with some concept of due process and respect for human rights. I beg to move.