---

Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

By and large, we welcome the Bill, although we have tried to improve it in various ways. I thank the Minister for the way in which he introduced it and took it through Committee. It has been possible to explore it in great detail, and he was always willing to take interventions. It does credit to the House that we have analysed it in that way, in particular on the Floor of the House, which has been useful in part. We have some concerns. We were worried about abolishing the annual canvass and tried to put a time scale on that so that there would be canvasses in 2015 at the latest and every 10 years after that. We were also a little concerned about the ability of the chief electoral officer, working with the Secretary of State, to cancel those canvasses, but we are where we are and we recognise the need to modernise the system. The important thing is that we have a full register of electors in Northern Ireland. We were a bit concerned about the donations for political purposes, although we did not touch on that greatly. We would have liked a time limit on donations from the Republic of Ireland, but the Government turned that down. I regret that. We tabled an amendment to address that, but sadly we did not reach it because of the lack of time. However, those donations remain a concern, for obvious reasons. The biggest issue covered by the Bill is the devolution of policing and justice. Although we have no objection to that in principle, we have discussed it at length and are worried that responsibility for it could fall into the wrong hands. I recognise that we have the double-double lock, the treble lock or the quadruple lock—or whatever it is—and that the Assembly does not have to accept responsibility for policing and justice. However, whether policing and justice are devolved, the points raised in connection with that are extremely important. I spoke about my experiences in South Armagh, but did not get a chance to expand on those because of the 6 o’clock deadline. When I visited it last week—I was pleased that the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee also visited it last week, and that the Chairman confirmed that my experiences were his—it was stressed that there had been a huge improvement in the area. However, it can by no means be considered normal when the police cannot go out on their own. That is not acceptable in any part of the United Kingdom. Whether certain people in that area like it or not, it is part of the United Kingdom. One of the most alarming things was that the police told me that the MP for that area would not engage with them. That is unacceptable, especially when that person is a Member of the Assembly, could become a Minister, and could become the Minister with responsibility for the police. However, at this point that person will not engage with them. Moving on from that, we wanted to try to make it a little more secure that people holding office in Northern Ireland actually supported the rule of law. The hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) mentioned that when he did a television programme and asked a Sinn Fein supporter whether they would report a crime—he gave as an example the crime of rape. If someone had such knowledge and did not report it, they would not be upholding the rule of law. It is not acceptable for such a person to sit in government. It is unfortunate that the Minister did not accept our amendments in that respect. We pressed them to the vote and did not win, but we made the point. It was not a watertight measure, but it would have moved the situation in the right direction. Again, we have not discussed the electricity market in great detail on the Floor of the House, although we discussed it upstairs. My understanding—this is not a criticism; it has been a good start—is that the Bill does not create the wholesale electricity market, as it is headlined in the Bill. According to the discussions I have had with the authorities in Northern Ireland, it will provide the ability to coordinate the regulation of the market in Northern Ireland with the regulation of the market in the Republic of Ireland. That may be a useful step but, in order for consumers in Northern Ireland to get the full benefit of that, they need to go further and to have a true market covering the whole of Ireland and, indeed, possibly the whole of Ireland and the United Kingdom. A bigger market, especially if they can move towards a freer market, will lead to lower electricity prices. I welcome the possibility of financial assistance for energy purposes, which is in clause 23, especially renewable energy. It is important that we develop renewable energy, first, because it is renewable and helps to reduce emissions of poisonous gases, and secondly, because it would provide security of supply. We have seen throughout the world a rather unsettled market in primary sources of energy. If we look at what is happening in certain areas of South America and at the behaviour of Russia on one or two occasions, it is clear that we need a more secure energy supply in this country. I pay tribute to the answer that the Prime Minister gave during Prime Minister's questions today. He gave a balanced and positive view of energy policy. I hope that he has the courage to pursue that policy against the opposition of certain members of his own party. It is important that he does so. I give a word of warning on clause 23. In Great Britain, we have not developed renewable energy as well as we should. It still provides a very small percentage of the electricity that we use. If we are going to pursue that in Northern Ireland, we need to do more not only on energy conservation, but on the development of renewable energy. It is not being developed in this country quickly enough. I hope that we can use the Bill to study why that has not been the case and to move on renewable energy a little more quickly in Northern Ireland than we have in Great Britain."I have made just a few observations; perhaps other hon. Members want to contribute. By and large, we welcome the Bill. There are not many of my colleagues here tonight, but they have contributed a great deal in Committee, particularly the Chairman of the Select Committee. I thank them for their help and support during the passage of the Bill."