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Progress Towards Devolution in Northern Ireland During the 2005 Parliament

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Progress Towards Devolution in Northern Ireland During the 2005 Parliament House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Progress towards devolution in Northern Ireland during the 2005 Parliament Seventh Report of Session 2009-10 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 24 March 2010 HC 319 Published on 1 April 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Northern Ireland Office (but excluding individual cases and advice given by the Crown Solicitor); and other matters within the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (but excluding the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Northern Ireland and the drafting of legislation by the Office of the Legislative Counsel). Current membership Sir Patrick Cormack MP (Conservative, South Staffordshire) (Chairman) Mr David Anderson MP (Labour, Blaydon) Rosie Cooper MP (Labour, West Lancashire) Christopher Fraser MP (Conservative, South West Norfolk) Mr John Grogan MP (Labour, Selby) Mr Stephen Hepburn MP (Labour, Jarrow) Lady Hermon MP (Independent, North Down) Kate Hoey MP (Labour, Vauxhall) Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP (SDLP, Belfast South) Mr Denis Murphy MP (Labour, Wansbeck) Stephen Pound MP (Labour, Ealing North) David Simpson MP (Democratic Unionist Party, Upper Bann) Lady Hermon was a member of the Ulster Unionist Party until 25 March 2010, when she became an Independent MP. Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/niacom. Current Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are David Weir (Clerk), Alison Groves (Second Clerk), Emma McIntosh (Senior Committee Assistant), Becky Crew (Committee Assistant), Karen Watling (Committee Assistant), Becky Jones (Media Officer), and Mr Tes Stranger (Committee Support Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 2173/1341; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Progress towards devolution in Northern Ireland during the 2005 Parliament 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Devolution in Northern Ireland 5 2 Crime and punishment 7 The devolution of policing and justice 7 The need for patience 7 Policing 8 Accountability and independence 8 Challenges for the PSNI 10 Dissident activity 10 Decommissioning 11 Justice 12 The Court Service 12 The Public Prosecution Service 13 Representation 13 The cost of justice 14 Prisons and probation 15 Prisons 15 Probation 17 3 Northern Ireland Affairs 18 The future of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and the NIO 18 The work of this Committee 18 Our inquiries 19 Conclusion 22 Conclusions and recommendations 25 Formal Minutes 27 Witnesses 28 List of written evidence 28 Appendices 29 Appendix 1: The Omagh bombing 29 Letter to the Chair of the Committee from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 18 March 2010 29 Letter to Rt Hon. Dr Kim Howells MP, Chair, Intelligence and Security Committee from the Chair of the Committee, 17 March 2010 30 Letter to the Chair from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 7 December 2009 30 Letter from the Prime Minister to Sir Patrick Cormack, Chair of the Committee, 14 September 2009 31 2 Appendix 2: The Consultative Group on the Past 32 Letter to the Chair from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 26 February 2010 32 Appendix 3: Bloody Sunday Inquiry 33 Letter to the Chair from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 19 March 2010 33 Letter from Rt Hon. the Lord Saville of Newdigate to Sir Patrick Cormack, Chair of the Committee, 11 March 2010 33 Letter to Rt Hon. the Lord Saville of Newdigate from the Chair of the Committee, 3 March 2010 37 Letter to the Chair from Rt Hon. the Lord Saville of Newdigate, 7 October 2009 37 Letter to Rt Hon. the Lord Saville of Newdigate from the Chair of the Committee, 24 September 2009 38 Letter to the Chair from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 25 August 2009 31 Appendix 4: Financial memoranda relating to the Northern Ireland Office 39 Memorandum submitted from the Northern Ireland Office relating to the 2009-10 Spring Supplementary Estimate 39 Memorandum submitted from the Northern Ireland Office relating to the 2009-10 Winter Supplementary Estimate 46 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 47 Progress towards devolution in Northern Ireland during the 2005 Parliament 3 Summary Having been present in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the Hillsborough talks, we were delighted to welcome the Prime Minister’s statement of Monday 8 February 2010, in which he said that the devolution of policing and justice to the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly would take place by 12 April 2010. We have been glad to observe the progress of devolution during the lifetime of the present Parliament. When the Committee assumed its duties in 2005, there was no functioning Northern Ireland Executive or Assembly. For two years, our remit extended across the board, and we produced a brief Report on education and a major Report on tourism, in addition to other Reports on, for example, organised crime, the Northern Ireland Prison Service, and community restorative justice. We were pleased to welcome the establishment of the Executive and a new Assembly in 2007 and were delighted to be able to follow the development of events between then and the retirement of the First Minister, Rt Hon. and Rev. Dr Ian Paisley MLA, MP. Our Chairman represented us at the Invest Northern Ireland conference called at the end of Dr Paisley’s period in office and was present throughout the following week in Northern Ireland when the Committee gave a dinner in honour of Dr Paisley and made a presentation to him. The establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive saw our remit significantly reduced and most of our work since then has been concerned with policing and justice and with cross-border issues, although we also produced a major report on Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland in January 2010. We conclude by welcoming the culmination of the devolution process with the Hillsborough Castle Agreement, and we are delighted that this has taken place during the lifetime of this Parliament and of this Committee. Northern Ireland will continue to need help, encouragement and support from Westminster but in the next Parliament, this will be provided in a wholly different context, a context in which a completely devolved Administration will put the Northern Ireland Assembly on much the same footing as the Scottish Parliament and with legislative powers not yet enjoyed by the Welsh Assembly. Progress towards devolution in Northern Ireland during the 2005 Parliament 5 1 Devolution in Northern Ireland 1. The Northern Ireland Assembly was elected in July 1998 as a consequence of the Belfast Agreement made on 10 April (Good Friday) of that year and endorsed in a referendum in Northern Ireland on 22 May.1 The Northern Ireland Act 1998 transferred from Westminster to the Assembly legislative and executive authority for a substantial range of public policy matters. The Northern Ireland Executive was headed jointly by a First Minister and a deputy First Minister, and comprised 10 departments (dealing with finance, health, employment, education, trade, culture, agriculture, environment and regional and social development). 2. Devolution was, for the third time, suspended on 14 October 2002 under the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 2000. In spite of a number of attempts to restore it, devolution was not fully reinstated until 8 May 2007 after the Assembly elections of 7 March 2007. Under the St Andrew’s Agreement of 2006, it was hoped that with the restoration of a devolved Assembly policing and justice matters would have been devolved by May 2008, those powers being the major area remaining under the direct administration of the United Kingdom Government. That deadline proved to be unrealistic. 3. In November 2008, the First Minister, Rt Hon. Peter Robinson MP, and the deputy First Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness MP, announced an agreement that would facilitate the devolution of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland. After further rounds of discussions and consideration in the Assembly, the Department of Justice Bill completed its progress through the Northern Ireland Assembly on 30 November 2009. It allowed the establishment of a Department of Justice to oversee policing and justice in Northern Ireland, and it set out the arrangements for the appointment of a Minister to head that department. Progress towards implementation was slow and at the end of January 2010, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland met for discussions at No. 10 Downing Street. There followed 10 days of intensive talks at Hillsborough Castle, Belfast, in which were involved the Prime Minister, the Taoiseach, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Republic’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, and representatives of Northern Ireland’s political parties, especially the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. These talks resulted in the Hillsborough Castle Agreement of 5 February 2010, which set out a timetable for the devolution of policing and justice powers.
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