Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 21 Mawrth 1979.
Much of the debate has centred around the problems of Northern Ireland and the extent to which terrorism in Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a product of the continuing tragedy of Ulster.
I believe that the Home Secretary would agree that it would be necessary to renew the powers of the 1976 Act whether or not there was a continuing terrorist problem in Northern Ireland. I agree with the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Cunningham) that there are parts of the noble Lord's report that are sloppy. I should like to refer to paragraph 141, which has been the cue for certain hon. Members to refer to the Bennett report. It states:
detailed allegations of the kind which have been made in Northern Ireland must be a matter for concern. If these allegations were to be borne out, serious questions would arise as to the adequacy of the safeguards applying to the powers of detention of the kind provided in this Act.
That was written on 18 July 1978, just eight months ago. It would have been more in conformity with the truth if the noble Lord had referred to the fact that the specific allegations—made by Amnesty International—have not been substantiated, despite a specific request to Amnesty by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Labour Members below the Gangway may not like that, but I call in aid what the Secretary of State said in the House on Friday. The right hon. Gentleman said:
At the time, there were many unsubstantiated allegations "—
the allegations referred to by Lord Shackleton—
against unnamed police officers, and I asked Amnesty International to furnish the Director of Public Prosecutions with witnesses' names and medical evidence so that the matter could be thoroughly investigated and, if necessary, a course of action taken against those responsible for the acts…but Amnesty International has not followed this through.
Amnesty International has not provided the medical evidence and names and addresses of witnesses for which the Secretary of State had asked.
The only other point that I wish to make about Lord Shackleton's report is that the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury was wrong when he said that the noble Lord had been paid for writing the report. That should be put on the record.
You, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and your predecessors in the Chair have been at pains to remind us of the words of Mr. Speaker at the start of the debate when he amplified what he said in the House on Friday. However, it seems reasonable that we should consider the Bennett report, not least because appendix 2 of the report refers to the 496 cases of complaints made against the police by those who were detained under the 1976 Act, which will be extended by the order that we are considering. Furthermore, table 6 of the Shackleton report records the 487 cases of those who have been detained in Northern Ireland under the provisions of the 1976 Act.
The hon. Members for Belfast, West (Mr. Fitt), Sheffield, Hillsborough (Mr. Flannery) and Antrim, North (Rev. Ian Paisley) all made criticisms, some of them not so veiled, of the RUC as a result of what appeared in the Bennett report. Those who have called the report in aid in order to criticise the RUC have been doing a profound disservice to the RUC and, unwittingly, a profound service to the Provisional IRA. Referring to the hon. Member for Belfast, West, the Secretary of State said on Friday:
My hon. Friend and members of the SDLP must now recognise that the Royal Ulster Constabulary is an impartial force.
That was in complete contradistinction to what the hon. Member for Hillsborough was saying a moment ago.