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Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

moved Amendment No. 20: 20: Clause 14 , page 11, leave out lines 8 to 11 The noble Lord said: The paragraphs in the report of the Select Committee relevant to this clause are numbered 162 to 164. Clause 14 enables the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission to issue a notice to a person requiring that person to produce information, documentation or to give oral evidence. Subsection (4) states that the NIHRC may issue this notice only if the matter to which the notice relates has not been investigated sufficiently by some other person. The Government have argued that this safeguard is necessary to ensure that the NIHRC’s powers are exercised appropriately and that the human rights of those who might be placed at risk by the evidence are protected. It should not be a condition of the commission’s power to procure evidence that no other person has conducted an investigation into the matter in question. It may well be that the matter has been investigated by another person who has a different mandate and focus than the NIHRC would have in its own investigation. So the commission should have the power to investigate a matter and call for evidence where it believes that it is necessary to do so. The JCHR takes the position that the clause should be a requirement and not a substantive condition. I beg to move.