Speeches by Robinson.

“I will give you an example as a Member of Parliament. Claire Hanna and I, both representing Belfast constituencies, spend a lot of time working with and supporting the Belfast Central Mission, which supports individuals who are subject to immigration controls. One famous example was of a lady—I will not name her, but I…”

“Do you think our border controls are too lax?”

“Yes. I am asking if you just have a look—”

“I am suggesting, Secretary of State, that you take a look at clauses 44 to 47 and paragraph 9 of schedule 1. Then you will be able to consider more fully whether there is a conflict between the notion that you have a role in determining conflicts of interest and the notion that you do not.”

“In terms of conflicts of interest, the Government’s note to us indicates that the Secretary of State will have no role in determining conflicts of interest, yet paragraph 9 of schedule 1 of the Bill states that, “A person may not be appointed as a Commissioner if…the Secretary of State considers that there is a matter …”

“Yes.”

“No, in the legislation they are a full member of the board with voting rights.”

“With the Equality Commission or the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, for example, the chief executive officer will sit on the board, but they are not a member of that board, and they are not responsible for overseeing themselves. If the purpose of your oversight board is to instil confidence, how can it be tha…”

“I’ll take that as a yes. In advance of Committee stage, you will be considering amendments, not from just me and colleagues around this table, and you will be trying—I presume, hope and trust—to reach consensus. Have you given any further thought to how the chief executive officer of the legacy commission can sit on th…”

“Would you be surprised if it were not completed by three weeks today?”

“So it is not scheduled for Tuesday 24 March?”

“Secretary of State, I have three quick questions on the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. Will we have concluded Committee stage by three weeks today?”

“Yes, but, Secretary of State, they are not direct threats. Police officers throughout the rest of the United Kingdom are not personally being threatened. They are not routinely driven in armoured cars or routinely armed. It is different. Comparable funding—”

“Which is for an additional thing. The point I think the Committee is trying to get to is that we are not entitled to a penny of counter-terrorism money under the £1.2 billion. Yet, we get a proportional share, which the Government tell us is for Northern Ireland-related activities, but they cannot tell us the criteria …”

“It is roughly the same, though it is calculated entirely separately. The point that the Committee is trying to drive home is that Northern Ireland has some unique issues and challenges that it has to deal with that are funded through ASF. There are now new and emerging threats associated, as you rightly say, with extre…”

“You are right about that—”

“Roughly the same, but not with the £1.24 billion uplift on need. I think it would be worth factoring that into your calculations—”

“That is correct—nothing. Do you know what a Barnett of £1.2 billion would be?”

“That is right—£1.2 billion. Do you know how much Northern Ireland avails of that?”

“Yes. Do you know how much money is available for counter-terrorism policing activities in England and Wales?”