Written question asked by Baroness Blood (Labour), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Shutt of Greetland (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 15 February 2011.

Northern Ireland: Bill of Rights

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Statement by the Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, Hugo Swire, on 16 December 2010 (Official Report, Commons, col. 131W), what further analysis is planned of the responses to the consultation A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland: Next Steps; how many and what percentage of responses supported the Minister's statement that there was ““considerable support”” for a wide-ranging bill of rights; and what support there was for a "more limited set of rights".

Answer: A wide range of views were expressed in the consultation and any categorisation of responses into support of either a wide-ranging Bill of Rights, or a more limited set of rights, or other statistical analysis, would be difficult to achieve. As indicated in the Minister of State's statement of 14 December 2010, the responses to the consultation have been published on the Northern Ireland Office website. The consultation did demonstrate that there was support for a wide-ranging Bill of Rights amongst human rights and community groups, but also that there was opposition to this and support instead for a more limited set of rights. This was referred to in the Minister of State's statement.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 6772; 725 c149-50WA
Session: 2010-12
Related items: Northern Ireland: Bill of Rights
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Written statements
House of Lords
Subjects: Bill of Rights Northern Ireland Public consultation
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk