Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

moved Amendment No. 6: 6: Clause 15, page 14, leave out lines 1 to 3 The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this amendment would ensure that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission does not need to give notice of a visit to a place of detention for the purposes of an investigation. I want to clarify a matter with the Minister, which was referred to in Committee, when he stated, very helpfully, that once the 15-day period was up, the Bill allowed the commission to carry out unannounced and unimpeded multiple visits to the places of detention. However, subsections (1) and (2) of the new inserted Section 69C make it clear that the commission may enter a place of detention ““during a specified period””. I take that to mean the period of the investigation. This is of course right and proper. We do not think that it would be appropriate for the commission to enter places of detention outwith the scope of an investigation. However, the notification period will allow a place of detention to be alerted to the fact that there is a particular, time-constrained investigation beginning, and could allow that place to be more prepared for a visit than it might otherwise be, which would not necessarily be to the benefit of the investigation. Will the Minister comment on that? Will he also tell us why a 15-day period was chosen? As we mentioned in Committee, the Department of Finance and Personnel has to give only 24 hours’ notice before entering establishments under Article 26A of the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977. If the noble Lord is not prepared to give way in removing this subsection altogether, will he perhaps consider returning with an amendment at Third Reading, to shorten the notification period? I beg to move.