It is the responsibility of the UK government to ensure Northern Ireland gets its own Bill of Rights, says Lord Smith of Clifton
The context to my parliamentary question is the resolution passed by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly at its last plenary session in the Isle of Man in November. The UK, in fulfilment of the Belfast Agreement (1998), finally almost completed devolution by transferring police and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
In order for devolution to be fully completed, a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights needs to be passed. The last Labour government dragged its feet on this. The coalition government, without any consultation with the Liberal Democrat junior partners, tried to change this commitment through the plan to incorporate Northern Ireland within an overarching UK Bill of Rights. That was what Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Patterson, stated and it was re-iterated by his deputy, Hugo Swire MP.
This was a continuation of the disastrous pre-general election pact between the Conservative Party and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). The election performance of the UUP (it lost all its Westminster seats) seriously undermined the legitimacy of this proposed course of action – leaving aside its incompatibility with the Belfast Agreement.
A Northern Ireland Bill of Rights is a UK government responsibility. It cannot abrogate that by hiding behind the notion that it requires cross-party agreement at Stormont. That is a cop-out! It explicitly does NOT require Stormont all-party endorsement.
I proposed the motion at the British-Irish Assembly and my parliamentary question is a follow-up to that.
There is a rumour that Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Patterson has modified his position and now agrees, in principle, to a separate bill for Northern Ireland. The parliamentary question seeks to probe if this is true; to ask when he will introduce the necessary legislation for a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights; and to make a distinct Liberal Democrat contribution to coalition Northern Ireland policymaking which has so far been conspicuously absent.
The Northern Ireland Office has no Liberal Democrat ministers and Patterson has not sought any Liberal democrat input into Northern Ireland Office policymaking.
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