NORTHERN IRELAND (EMERGENCY
PROVISIONS) BILL
Memorandum by the
Northern Ireland Office
Introduction
1. This memorandum, which
is provided by the Northern Ireland Office, deals with the delegated
powers which are conferred or affected by the Northern Ireland
(Emergency Provisions) Bill, which completed its Report and Third
Reading stages in the House of Commons on Thursday 11th December
1997.
Background
2. The Bill extends by
two years the life of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions)
Act 1996 ('the 1996 Act'), which would otherwise expire on 24th
August 1998 by virtue of section 60(10) of that Act. Except as
provided in the Bill it does not seek to amend any of the provisions
of the 1996 Act relating to delegated powers. The memorandum
submitted in relation to the 1996 Act is set out in Annex 2 to
the Committee's Report on the Bill which became the 1996 Act.
The considerations set out in the earlier memorandum remain unchanged
insofar as they relate to provisions which are not affected by
the Bill.
Provisions of the Bill
dealing specifically with Delegated Powers
3. Clause 4 extends the
Secretary of State's duty to make a code of practice for the silent
video recording of police interviews with persons detained under
the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989, and
to make an order requiring compliance with that code, to such
other police interviews as he may specify in such an order. Since
the nature of the code will effectively limit the interviews specified
to those which are held at terrorist questioning centres (though
it will be for the orders to specify the manner in which a person
comes to be interviewed (eg production from a prison)) it was
felt that the existing negative resolution procedure in section
60(5) of the 1996 Act would provide sufficient Parliamentary control.
4. Clause 5 makes provision
for the audio recording of police interviews which corresponds
to the provision made by section 53 of the 1996 Act for the silent
video recording of such interviews. Again the power to specify
by order other kinds of police interviews to which these provisions
can apply is subject to the negative resolution procedure under
section 60(5) of the 1996 Act, as amended by paragraph 3(3)(b)
of Schedule 1 to the Bill.
5. Clause 6 has the effect
that an order bringing a code of practice into operation under
section 54(3) of the 1996 Act will be subject to the affirmative
resolution procedure under section 60(2) of the 1996 Act, instead
of the negative resolution procedures as at present under subsection
(5) of that section, subject (as at present) to the 'emergency'
procedure in subsection (3) of that section. This provision is
a consequence of an amendment made to the Bill by Mr Trimble (with
whom the Government concurred) who felt that Parliamentary control
in this area should be more stringent, and in line with that for
codes of practice under the Criminal Procedure and Investigations
Act 1996.
16 December 1997
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