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Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 (Specified Organisations) Order 2008

I hope that I got it correct originally, because the decision on specification or despecification is not for the Independent Monitoring Commission, but for the Secretary of State. He has considered it in the round and reviewed all organisations, hence we have come along with a package of specified organisations, which I read out. If Parliament approves the order, two will come off and one will be added, but that is the Secretary of State’s decision, subsequently approved by Parliament, one assumes. I will not get into the semantics because I do not have the IMC report in front of me, but it asked him to revisit the matter. He looked at it in the round, which he is required to do; it is not just about the issue of decommissioning. The noble Lord also asked me about attempts to procure weapons and involvement in organised crime. The IMC commented in the 18th report that it believed that individuals had attempted to procure weapons, but in our view that has not been as a result of any decision by the leadership to increase the UVF stocks. Indeed, the leadership has taken some action against offending members on the weapons issue. That is in line with the leadership’s statement of May 2007, the final paragraph of which I read out. The Government have to draw a distinction between the actions of individuals and the organisation as a whole, and we are satisfied that the actions were not on behalf of the organisation. It is evident from the arrests in Lithuania in January that law enforcement agencies are working hard to combat the activity. As I said, the Organised Crime Task Force is working hard to detect, disrupt and dismantle criminal gangs involved in organised criminal activity. Key successes include over £35 million-worth of criminal assets being disrupted, seized and recovered or settled, over £4 million of illegal drugs being seized, and £1.6 million of counterfeit goods being seized over the past year. Cash-in-transit attacks in Northern Ireland fell by 56 per cent in 2007: there were 22 attacks compared with 51 in 2006. I was then asked—this is where I have to be clear in my diction—what the UDA had done since it was despecified. On 6 October 2007, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning confirmed to the Secretary of State that a meeting between it and the UDA had taken place in which decommissioning was discussed and named interlocutors were appointed. We hope that this progress will be continued and that a tangible result will be forthcoming. It illustrates some, but limited, progress since the organisation’s despecification in November 2004. It is modest, but it is a step in the right direction. The direction of travel is clear. The LVF remains specified. Like other specified groups, it must engage with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and turn away from violence. It remains on the list. I hope that I have satisfied the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, who was kind enough to give me notice of some of his concerns regarding the despecification of the UVF. I regret that I did not keep track of which noble Lord asked me about the Provisional Army Council. Everybody looks forward to the day when the vestiges of all Northern Ireland’s paramilitaries, including the Provisional Army Council, have been relegated to where they belong: in the past. There is no hope for the future for these organisations. Whatever they may feel about what they have done in the past, collectively, independently and individually, there is no hope for them in the future. Financially, economically and militarily, there is no support for them. The climate has changed in Northern Ireland and they need to move with it. I understand that far less than noble Lords who live in Northern Ireland, but I do understand that these things take time. So far, effort has been channelled towards ensuring that all those who come to the table to negotiate can walk away with a vestige of success—there is no victory or defeat here. The victory is for the people, the economy and the society of Northern Ireland. If they can all come to the table and walk away with a degree of success over a period of time—not success in terms of victory—that will be the testament, but it will not happen overnight: it is a very slow process. However, slow though it may be, what we are able to report today shows that there is progress. I hope that I and other Ministers can in the future report similar progress—it will be slow and it will be from time to time. There will come a day when those organisations have all gone. We hope that it will be as soon as possible, but we realise that it will not be overnight. On Question, Motion agreed to.