Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 (Extension of Duration of Non-jury Trial Provisions) Order 2023
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
Read Full debate
Lord Caine
That the Grand Committee do consider the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 (Extension of Duration of Non-jury Trial Provisions) Order 2023
Relevant document: 38th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office (Lord Caine) (Con)
My Lords, under this draft order, which was laid before this House on 24 April, trials without a jury can take place in Northern Ireland where the statutory conditions are met for a further two years, until 31 July 2025. The current provisions will expire on 31 July this year. Following a public consultation, and after consideration of the wider security situation in Northern Ireland, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State considers it necessary to seek an extension to these provisions to ensure the continued safe administration of justice in specific cases.
I am keenly aware that this is the eighth extension of these powers since they came into operation in 2007. I hope that noble Lords will be assured of the continued necessity of these provisions for a further two years. This decision was made carefully and informed by a detailed public consultation process, as well as by the work of the non-jury trial working group. This group was established following recommendations by the former Independent Reviewer of the Justice and Security Act, Mr David Seymour CB, and is composed of representatives from the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Court Service, the Bar, the Law Society and other independent organisations.
The group has worked to produce detailed reports for the independent reviewer and to develop a set of indicators to assist the Secretary of State in determining whether these non-jury trial provisions remain necessary. The indicators include assessments of the current levels of paramilitary activity and intimidation in Northern Ireland. In conjunction with the consultation responses, the Secretary of State considered these and reached the determination that they further demonstrate that it would not be appropriate to remove the non-jury trial provisions at this time.
I am of course keenly aware of the disappointment that many noble Lords across the House will feel that the security situation today necessitates a further extension of these provisions. We should not, however, lose sight of the real progress that has been made since the dark days of the so-called Troubles. Today, there is a strong presumption of jury trial in Northern Ireland, and in 2021 only 0.6% of all Crown Court cases were conducted without a jury; that is, eight out of 1,358. By contrast, at the peak of the Diplock court system in the mid-1980s, there were more than 300 such cases per year.
Under the provisions of the 2007 Act, non-jury trials are reserved for use only in exceptional cases where the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland deems it to be necessary. As correctly stated on 23 May in the other place by the spokesperson for the Official Opposition:
“The provision for non-jury trials is a little-used but vital tool in ensuring the administration of justice”.—[Official Report, Commons, Delegated Legislation Committee, 23/5/23; col. 6.]
I agree with that statement.
As I know noble Lords will appreciate, these proportionate measures remain necessary to safeguard against risks such as juror intimidation and juror bias in an extremely small number of cases. A non-jury trial may be permitted if the defendant is associated with a proscribed organisation or if the offence being tried is in connection with religious or political hostility. Such cases are high profile and continue to provoke strong public opinion on both sides of the community.
Like their predecessors, this Government remain committed to bringing an end to these provisions when it is safe and compatible with the interests of justice to do so. We firmly believe, however, that now is not the time to take this step.
As demonstrated by the recent increase in the threat level to “severe” and the abhorrent attack on DCI John Caldwell in February, a small number of people in Northern Ireland continue to try to destabilise the political situation through acts of terrorist violence. Their activity causes harm to individuals and communities across Northern Ireland.
Despite courageous work by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and others across the community in Northern Ireland, terrorist and paramilitary groups continue to exert influence and control in communities where they operate. In the year 2021-22 there were 163 recorded offences of intimidation or threats to harm witnesses, and 170 households were accepted as homeless due to intimidation in 2022. These are facts that we cannot ignore.
It would be counterintuitive to believe that the same issues faced by witnesses would not be replicated should they be asked to sit as a juror in these cases. Furthermore, the most recent results from the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey in 2022 found that 17% of respondents believed that paramilitary groups create fear and intimidation in their area.
I trust noble Lords will agree that the safety of the people in Northern Ireland and the administration of justice are paramount. The Government remain committed to working strategically with security partners to tackle the threat from Northern Ireland-related terrorism and to support the Northern Ireland Executive’s programme to tackle paramilitary activity. However, we are not prepared to put the safety of individuals or the administration of justice at risk and believe that there has not been sufficient change in the security situation over the last two years to demonstrate that the non-jury trial provisions are no longer required.
In conclusion, I am sure that I can count on the support of noble Lords across the Committee for the Government’s work to safeguard the administration of justice and to normalise all security arrangements as soon as it is safe to do so. On that basis, I beg to move.
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his presentation of the SI. I declare an interest as a member of your Lordships’ Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee.
Some 29 years after the ceasefires and 25 years since the Good Friday agreement, it is worrying that there is still a need for an extension of such a power. Although I am not personally opposed to this legislation, I feel that non-jury trials should be an exception rather than the rule. I think the Minister characterised it in that light in his presentation, but I want to know how many such trials took place last year. We have the figure for 2021 in the Explanatory Memorandum but not for 2022.
The Minister gave us the indicators. We probably could have guesstimated those anyway.
We know that the threat level was increased on 28 March this year to “severe”, due to the increased level of dissident republican activity. As the Minister referred to, we had the threatened murder of DCI Caldwell. I am glad to see that he is making a recovery, having been released from hospital and having had some time at home. In fact, he was able to attend the garden party last week at Hillsborough, which showed an improvement in his physical health. I hope he makes enormous strides in that respect.
Only a few days ago, we witnessed on our TV screens and social media an alleged taxi driver taking a gun to a client. He was sacked from his job, although I understand he was not necessarily acting for that firm at the time. Notwithstanding that, he was apparently acting as a drug enforcer for one of the paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland.
Some 29 years since the ceasefires, the public in Northern Ireland want an end to such paramilitary and criminal activity; they have had enough of it. They do not want to be brought to heel by such paramilitary organisations and criminal gangs; they want to see an end to it. If this debate does anything, it will tell those people, “Get off the backs of the people of Northern Ireland”. We are sick, sore and tired of it, and we want to live in peace and harmony. We want to see the restoration of our political institutions, which, I hope, will be able to help foster economic opportunity for us all.
Related to this is the legacy Bill, which the Minister is also involved in. I know that on the Bill’s last day in Committee he referred to game-changing government amendments. When will they be published? I hope that he is not as surprised as the expression on his face suggests. I want to know when they will be available and what they will cover. Will they enable access to inquests and inquiries? Will they be compatible with the ECHR?
In conclusion, although I do not have a strong aversion to this SI and I generally support it, I hope that it will be the exception to the rule. There could very well be a further extension, depending on terrorist and paramilitary activity in 2025, but I hope that we are looking to bright, fresher new days where terrorism will definitely be a thing of the past and we will not need this type of legislation.
Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Lab)
My Lords, I agree with everything that has been said, but it is still a grave and terrible thing to take away the right of a citizen of the United Kingdom to have a trial by jury, which goes back many centuries. Of course, I understand why this occurred. Anyone who, like me, has been watching that wonderful series about the recent Troubles, “Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland” on BBC Northern Ireland, will understand why you could not avoid jurors being intimated by paramilitaries from both sides if they took part in their legal duty.
But times have changed. Over the last 25 years, roughly 160 people have been killed because of terrorist activity, compared with 3,500 before 1998. That is an enormous change. Many people forget that the Good Friday agreement also dealt with the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland and changed it to such an extent that it became acceptable to all communities in Northern Ireland. That is why, in 2007 there was a major change to ensure that only the smallest number of cases are to be dealt with simply by judges and not by juries. No one wants that to continue in our democratic society—of course we do not.
The only thing that needs to be reflected on—it comes out in the consultation document that the Government produced—is that there are still difficulties. When I looked at the figures it struck me that hundreds of families are still made homeless because of sectarianism in Northern Ireland. Hundreds of people are still attacked and injured because of paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland. Tragically, there are still people killed because of that. While those circumstances continue, it is necessary for this legislation to be continued for a further two years.
I hope the Minister will go back and reflect on what the Committee has said about reviewing the situation with non-jury trials over the next two years. I know there is a working party. I hope it actually operates and that the next time, if we are spared, we come to renew this legislation, we might not have to do so, but at the moment, we do.
I conclude on one other factor. Political instability is the cousin of political violence—a distant cousin, but it is there. The more the Government concentrate their effort on trying to ensure that we get political stability in Northern Ireland by constantly talking to the political parties there and to others concerned, the better, so that when we return after the recess, perhaps—who knows?—the institutions will be restored.
Lord Caine (Con)
My Lords, I am very grateful to noble Lords who participated in this short debate this afternoon, and I thank them for the support— reluctant, in some cases—that they have given to the order before the Committee. I share the frustration of noble Lords in having to bring this order back for an eighth time since 2007, when the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act was passed by the Government of which the noble Lord, Lord Murphy of Torfaen, was a distinguished member. We all share the aspiration that this will be the last time that we have to do it, but the reality of the situation in Northern Ireland as we find it today is that there remains a significant risk of intimidation of jurors and witnesses, and therefore I am afraid there is no alternative at present.
The noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, referred to the grip of paramilitaries in communities across Northern Ireland, and I share her anger that, nearly 29 years after the first ceasefires in 1994, paramilitaries continue to operate within the community in this way. There was never any justification for them in the first place, and there is no justification for them today. As she knows, I was involved in the fresh start agreement in 2015, when we looked at this issue very closely and, out of that, there is the Tackling Paramilitarism task force within the Northern Ireland Executive, to which we as a Government are currently contributing £8 million a year in match funding, so we take these matters extremely seriously.
The noble Baroness asked me about the figures for 2022 for the number of cases that were tried in non-jury courts. The latest figures I have are those I read out in my opening speech, for 2021. Of course, as soon as the latest figures are available, I undertake to draw them to her attention.
Slightly at a tangent from the order, the noble Baroness asked me about the legacy Bill and when the amendments to that Bill on Report will be available. I can say only that I hope to be in a position to publish them very shortly, and in advance of the usual timeframe for tabling government amendments on Report. If she can contain her excitement for now, I am sure she will not have very long to wait. We go to Report on the Bill on 21 and 26 June.
A number of noble Lords referred to the security situation, and particularly the case of DCI John Caldwell. I join them in thanking God that he survived that vicious, murderous attack and was able to attend the garden party at Hillsborough a week last Wednesday, when he was presented to His Majesty the King. We all pray for his continued recovery and good health.
The noble Lord, Lord Browne of Belmont, made some interesting comments about the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland. I hardly need to remind him that the operation of the criminal justice system and any potential reform of it is a matter for the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland and the devolved Executive, if one were currently in existence. On the issue of funding, in the recent Budget, difficult as it has been, we allocated £1.2 billion to the Department of Justice, and it is for the department to allocate its resources accordingly.