Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I think that all your Lordships are agreed that a statutory basis for this post is crucial; but it has to be the right statutory basis. When Lord Gardiner, the then Lord Chancellor spoke in 1967 to your Lordships’ House about the establishment of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, he stressed two matters. The first was the ability of the new post to enhance Parliament's capacity to scrutinise the Executive. The second was its capacity to secure remedies for citizens treated unjustly by a public body. More recently, the Council of Europe has emphasised the importance of ombudsmen to the promotion of the rule of law and the protection of human rights. Crucial to those objectives is the independence of the office of ombudsman. The problem is that under the Bill’s provisions, which the Minister now seeks to withdraw, the office is not independent. That is exacerbated by the fact that the citizens over whom the ombudsman will have jurisdiction are incarcerated by the state. There are a number of reasons why the position is not independent. The funding of this new office is to be determined by the Secretary of State, not by a levy on those investigated or by money supplied directly by Parliament. Indeed, the staffing arrangements are subject to the discretion of the Secretary of State. The office holder is to be accountable to the Secretary of State, not directly accountable to Parliament. The office holder will be under a duty to investigate any matter which is the subject of a request by the Secretary of State, who will be able to direct him as to the scope of that task. The annual report is not even being sent directly to Parliament; it goes to the Secretary of State first and the Secretary of State has discretion on when it should come before Parliament. All those matters must be addressed by the Minister during the period that elapses between now and when the Government choose to bring the matter back. I am sure that the Minister will have received, as I have, a letter from Mr Brian Coulter, the Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. Along with the measures for England and Wales, an additional part deals with Northern Ireland. I shall be most interested to hear from the Minister what he thinks the position will be there. The defects of the position for Northern Ireland are exactly the same as those for England and Wales, but there is an added complication for Northern Ireland, which is the issue of devolution. At some stage, the powers and the office with it will be devolved and consideration will have to be given in Northern Ireland to what kind of arrangements they want there. What can the Minister tell us about that? What forecasts about the timing, context and nature of the devolved arrangements has the Minister made in drafting that part? We are all agreed that it should be statutory, but that is only the beginning.