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Northern Ireland Policing Board (Northern Ireland) Order 2007

The Northern Ireland Policing Board is probably more successful than could have been anticipated. However, I have listened to what the Minister has said about the present structure and make-up and I wonder if he has taken into account the fact that one of the existing Policing Board members, one of the appointed members, is now a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the leader of a political party? Furthermore, in relation to the independent members, I was interested to hear the noble Baroness say that she had spent many hours making appointments to her particular district policing body, and some of us here today have also spent long hours making appointments not so much to the Policing Board, but rather to the district policing partnerships, which are the sons or daughters of the Policing Board. But I think the position is slightly more complicated than has been suggested here today. We have a position where Sinn Fein has declared publicly at an Ard Fheis that it supports police, yet one of its members, the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, declared at the count recently that they would not be giving information to the police on anything and would not encourage anyone to go to the police with information. This further complicates the whole situation in relation to policing. It has to be said here today that there are many who have been appointed independent members, particularly from the nationalist community, who did put their heads above the parapet and go into extremely difficult situations in which they were intimidated in their homes, their cars burned, and they were put through all sorts of hoops by republicans who were absolutely adamant that policing was not going to work in Northern Ireland. I pay tribute to those people today. They had the courage to stand up and be counted, and they did so at great personal risks, both to their lives and their property. Should the day come when a new board is contemplated, those facts ought also to be taken into consideration. It was their courage and bravery that stood up against militant republicanism, at great cost. I want to put that on the record today.