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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

moved Amendment No. 28:"After Clause 20, insert the following new clause—" ““CONTINUED SUSPENSION OF ASSEMBLY: PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL OF ORDERS IN COUNCIL (1)   This section shall come into force on 25th November 2006 unless a restoration order under section 2(2) of the Northern Ireland Act 2000 (c. 1) has been made before that date (in which case this section shall cease to have effect). (2)   Paragraph 2 of the Schedule to that Act is amended as follows. (3)   In sub-paragraph (1)(a), for ““by resolution of each House of Parliament”” substitute ““in accordance with sub-paragraphs (1A) to (1C)””. (4)   After sub-paragraph (1) insert— ““(1A) A draft of every Order in Council must be laid before each House of Parliament for approval before it may be made. (1B) If each House of Parliament passes a resolution that the draft Order be approved with a specified amendment or amendments, the Order shall be made as so amended. (1C) If no amendment or amendments are specified under sub-paragraph (1B), the Order shall be approved unamended.”””” The noble Lord said: This is a very important amendment—probably, I would argue, the most important one that we will consider. Being a rag-bag of a Bill, it may lack a consistent theme but it affords us a rare opportunity to put forward a major positive proposal. For more than two years, I have been pressing the Government to come up with something different from the orders—the secondary legislation—that we always have when considering even major aspects of Northern Ireland business. I have always been met with a good deal of sympathy by whomever the spokesman has been. Indeed, they have said, ““You come up with suggestions. We do not have the resources in the Northern Ireland Office””. We did come up with suggestions, and as recently as Monday, 19 June my noble friend Lady Harris detailed in the House the length of time that it took for the Northern Ireland Office to respond, but the answer was not very satisfactory. So this is an opportunity to ask Ministers not merely to sympathise with the view of the state of affairs that obtains, by which Northern Ireland business is not considered as carefully as it might be and is not made amenable to amendment in the way that occurs with most legislation that affects Great Britain, but to act. The amendment provides an opportunity to press the Government at this point. The amendment would institute a new procedure for scrutinising Orders in Council. As the noble Lord is undoubtedly aware, we have been very unhappy for some time about the Order in Council process. The amendment puts forward a proposal by which we would be able to amend Orders in Council in the future. We hope that the amendment will not be necessary in the long run and that the Assembly will indeed have devolved government restored to it by November. However, if that does not happen and if we continue to debate Orders in Council—which are in fact pieces of primary legislation—at Westminster, then we must have a more effective way of scrutinising legislation for Northern Ireland. The amendment proposes that a Motion to approve an Order in Council could also propose that amendments to the order be made. We believe that the ability to amend Orders in Council, in a one-stage process, is the very least that the Government could accept to ensure that Northern Ireland legislation is properly scrutinised at Westminster. It cannot be beyond the wit of humankind to provide a new, more appropriate vehicle for dealing with Northern Ireland business if direct rule continues beyond 24 November. On Report, therefore, we would want the Minister to come forward with substantive proposals for new amendable procedures for Northern Ireland secondary legislation if devolution is not re-established. Failing that, we shall be pressing this amendment very strongly at that stage. I beg to move.