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Mr. Ben Wallace (Lancaster and Wyre) (Con): I wish to place on record my salute to members of the Royal Irish Regiment, formerly the Ulster Defence Regiment, whom I served alongside in Northern Ireland for a number of years. They were some of the bravest members of the security forces and, unlike many regulars, they went home at the end of their patrols and lived in the community, often in danger. What measures will be put in place to protect individuals who live in very republican communities, often in rural areas, for whom danger will go on after their regiment has been disbanded?
Will any of these people remain in the reserve? The ninth Independent Monitoring Commission report stated that although the situation is heading towards normalisation, it is volatile. If these people remain in the reserve, there would be an asset to take advantage of in the future.
There is also the element of cost. We know that the MOD is strapped for cash and is facing many commitments. What discussions has the Minister had with the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, his hon. Friend the Member for St. Helens, South (Mr. Woodward)? What assistance has he had from that
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Department, or other Government Departments, to pay the £25 million so that we do not see reductions in armed services elsewhere as a result of this generous offer?
Mr. Ingram: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his service in the armed forces and the role that he played as an individual soldier in getting us to this position of normalisation.
We are not strapped for cash. We have had a very significant settlement. The demands are unquestionably great and can grow exponentially at times, but we have to balance resources. We have laid down a considerable package. The Northern Ireland Office went through this process with the conversion of the RUC to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. I cannot remember the total sum involved in that, but it was another considerable package. However, this is a debt of honour to our people and cannot be seen as compensation. To squabble about money would be unseemly. We have done what we believe to be right. It has been well received across Northern Ireland and, if not, I will hear about it from those who currently serve. We have had a flavour of how well it has been received, although there are still some concerns to be addressed.
The protection of those who have gone back to civilian life is a matter for security assessment within Northern Ireland and rests with the Chief Constable. We have always shown our willingness to look after people in that part of the United Kingdom. I do not see that changing.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): Order. We must now move on to the next business.
BILL PRESENTED
Keith Vaz presented a Bill to amend the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to establish a right of appeal in relation to the amount of compensation payable under section 133 of that Act and to make provision about the procedure for the assessment of such amounts: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 17 March, and to be printed. [Bill 143].
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Orders of the Day
Childcare Bill
As amended in the Standing Committee, considered.
'(1) A person authorised for the purpose of subsection (1) or (2) of section 77 may apply to a court for a warrant under this section.
(2) If it appears to the court that the authorised person—
(a) has attempted to exercise a power conferred on him by section 77 but has been prevented from doing so, or
(b) is likely to be prevented from exercising any such power, the court may issue a warrant authorising any constable to assist that person in the exercise of the power, using reasonable force if necessary.
(3) A warrant issued under this section must be addressed to, and executed by, a constable.
(4) Schedule 11 to the Children Act 1989 (c. 41) (jurisdiction of courts) applies in relation to proceedings under this section as if they were proceedings under that Act.
(5) In this section, "court" means the High Court, a county court or a magistrates' court but this is subject to any provision which may be made (by virtue of subsection (4)) by or under Schedule 11 to the Children Act 1989 (c. 41).'.—[Maria Eagle.]
Brought up, and read the First time.
12.47 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Maria Eagle): I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): With this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendment No. 18.
Maria Eagle: It is a pleasure to resume our deliberations on the Bill. I hope that we shall be able to deal with the outstanding issues succinctly; I shall certainly attempt to do so.
New clause 1 allows persons authorised under clause 77 to apply to the court for a warrant for a constable to support them. It is purely a technical, tidying amendment—which means that we forgot to deal with it earlier—to ensure that the power under section 102 of the Children Act 1989 of a constable to assist is carried forward appropriately to the legislation. It would enable the court to issue a warrant in cases where it appeared that Ofsted had been prevented, or was likely to be prevented, from exercising powers under clause 77. Fortunately for all concerned, such applications have
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been extremely rare so we do not expect the provision to be needed frequently; none the less, it makes sense to include it.
Amendment No. 18 simply tidies up the impact of the new clause by adding a power for a constable to assist in respect of family proceedings. On that basis, I commend the provisions to the House.
Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con): I shall not detain the House on these technical amendments, which the Minister was gracious enough to admit might have been dealt with earlier.
On a general note, however, the Government recently tabled a number of amendments for discussion today, several of which are completely new provisions, yet no accompanying explanatory notes or letters from the Minister have been forthcoming. That is not helpful. Usually when the Government table amendments on new matters, one would expect an explanation, as a courtesy at least.
Furthermore, I notice from the Order Paper that the Secretary of State is making a written statement on "Safeguarding in early years and childcare", which I presume is germane to the Bill, yet neither I nor my hon. Friends—nor, I suspect, the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke), who speaks for the Liberal Democrats—received notice of that statement. My office rang the Minister's office this morning and we were promised that a copy would be e-mailed straightaway, but that has not appeared. That is regrettable, especially in the light of what happened last week with the Children and Adoption Bill, when Opposition Members were not notified about the imminent publication of a report that was absolutely germane to the business, and was referred to during that business by the Minister of State. That is a shame, because it diminishes the detail of our debate at a late but crucial stage.
I am thus not in a position to take issue with the points that the Under-Secretary of State has just made, although based on a scant reading of the provisions, we do not want to raise any objections to them. However, it would have been nice to receive an explanation of them sooner.
Maria Eagle: I apologise to the hon. Gentleman for the fact that we do not appear to have managed to do what we said we would do, and get those details and the written statement over to Opposition spokesmen. It was certainly our intention to do so, and I undertake to find out why that did not happen. I am the first to admit that the situation is not satisfactory; I can but apologise.
It seems, however, that the Opposition do not take exception to the new clause and the amendment—[Interruption.] I have just received some late information. The detail that we hoped to pass to the Opposition was placed on the letter board—I assume, this morning—so we attempted to inform them. I shall try to find out what went wrong and when, and I will talk to the hon. Gentleman about it outside the Chamber.
Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.
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