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Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I accept that the Minister listened to the concerns expressed in Committee and that the Government have moved, but they have not moved far enough. They have introduced the ““exceptional circumstances”” clause and amendment No. 31, whereby clause 7 is subject to section 7(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998. Those are steps in the right direction. However, it remains the case that in order to get a judicial review under clause 7, the applicant would have to prove that the DPP had acted dishonestly or in bad faith, which would be extremely difficult. We also have the rather woolly phrase, ““exceptional circumstances””. I feel that there should still be the right to judicial review. I am disappointed that the Government did not accept amendment No. 5, which would have dealt with the worry about intelligence information being made public by ensuring that there was no possibility of that happening. We are supposed to be moving towards normalisation in Northern Ireland, and that means a jury trial unless there is a risk of jury-tampering, which is already covered by the Criminal Justice Act 2003. I want to stress that we are in no way criticising the judiciary in Northern Ireland, who undoubtedly conduct fair trials. However, normalisation means that trial before a jury of one’s peers should be the normal situation. Yes, there are circumstances in which that may not be the right course of action, but the amendment would have covered those. The taking away of the right to apply for a judicial review where there is no right to trial by jury is a fundamental issue. We shall therefore seek to press amendment No. 15 to a vote. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.