Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

My Lords, for the avoidance of doubt, although the noble Lord has just accurately quoted me on the amendment that he did not move today, if that amendment had been moved, I would have said words to this effect: we have to remember that the environment in Northern Ireland includes an ongoing threat from public order incidents on a different scale from those in the rest of the UK, the specific residual Irish terrorist threat, and the threat posed by paramilitaries moving into organised crime. I do not expect to see the remaining threat regressing significantly any time soon, although we very much hope that we are wrong in that assessment. I am happy to make that clear. That is the situation we are in. There is a natural suspicion about community restorative justice. There is a natural suspicion among people in parts of England where there are no such difficulties. It is a different concept and we have not understood it. Therefore, when certain bodies and organisations embraced it a bit quickly, you did not have to spend more than five minutes working out how it could be undermined if they said, ““Hang on, this is our area and we’ll police this in our way””. That was the unspoken issue. The schemes have all been voluntary and unaccredited. The whole thing has been quite outwith any basis up until the present time. I hope to be able to reinforce, as I tried to do in Committee, that some of the issues relating to the protocol very much meet the thrust of what is behind the noble Lord’s amendment. The ideas and the concerns behind it would be shared by anybody, hence the discussions that have gone on over the consultations on the protocol. We believe that the aims of the amendment are largely met in the requirements of the protocol, which was published in February this year, with the role of the Criminal Justice Inspectorate and a panel to determine the suitability of participants clearly defined. It will be the Secretary of State’s responsibility to accredit schemes only after they have demonstrated that they can meet the stringent standards set out in the protocol. That will be maintained and published and kept up to date on the Northern Ireland Office website. The protocol provides that the Criminal Justice Inspectorate shall conduct regular and random inspections of all accredited schemes and report to the Secretary of State on whether the schemes are maintaining the stringent operating standards set out in the protocol. Where a scheme is failing to meet the required standards, the Secretary of State will take action in relation to the accreditation of individual schemes. But I understand the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Trimble. That is why I emphasise that, where the scheme fails to meet the required standards, the Secretary of State will take action in relation to its accreditation. The protocol makes specific provision for the creation of a suitability panel, comprising representatives of the statutory and voluntary organisations, to determine the suitability of participants seeking to engage in the activities that it governs. The criteria that the panel will use to determine suitability is set out in the protocol. These specifically provide that any convictions for serious criminal offences after 10 April 1998, or a term of imprisonment within a period of three years prior to being considered by the panel, will render an applicant unsuitable. Convictions prior to 10 April 1998 for serious criminal offences will not in themselves constitute an automatic bar, but will be considered in the round by the suitability panel in making the determination. I understand exactly the import of my words, but we believe that that is consistent with the Government’s position that those with previous criminal convictions should not be prevented from playing a full role in the community where they can clearly demonstrate that their criminal behaviour is firmly in the past. If they cannot, they will not get through the suitability panel. It is as simple as that. We do not think that they should be ruled out because of the criminal offence in itself; it must be looked at by the panel.