Mr Andrew Hunter: Do the Government specifically envisage that Sinn Fein would be reflected on the commission? The Minister said earlier that politics was not an issue, but that is hard to understand in such a highly politicised society as Northern Ireland. Will he therefore clarify whether Sinn Fein will be reflected in the commission or not?
Mr Andrew Hunter: I confess that the hon. Gentleman's argument has left me completely bewildered. Is he effectively saying that appointment should be by merit alone, so amendment No. 23 should not be supported?
Mr Andrew Hunter: Amendments Nos. 11, 13 and 25 embody arguments that the right hon. Member for Upper Bann (Mr. Trimble) made in Committee. I supported him then and I do now. If he has it in mind to press them to a Division, he will have the support of the Democratic Unionist party. I want to put to the Minister an interesting issue that arises out of amendment No. 11, whose paragraph 8A(1) refers to lay...
Mr Andrew Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations she has received about the use of the insurance money received by the Tate Gallery following the theft of Turner works on loan to Germany in 1994; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Andrew Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations she has received about the establishment of a dedicated Turner gallery; which organisations and individuals have made representations; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Andrew Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will take steps to ensure that the works of Turner currently at the Tate and National galleries are (a) placed under the same body of trustees and (b) housed together.
Mr Andrew Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will introduce legislation to amend the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 so that it is consistent with the requirement of Turner's will that his finished pictures should be kept together.
Mr Andrew Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, if he will take measures to ensure that only local education authority-approved teachers can be employed by schools as supply teachers.
Mr Andrew Hunter: I do not remotely apologise for going over old ground—these debates are fundamental. The Minister's comments horrify me. He says that this is not the ''proper context'' in which to debate these proposals. Well, they are totally in order and you, Mr. Benton, selected them. It is most appropriate, therefore, that we debate them. It is not for a Minister to decree that this is not the proper...
Mr Andrew Hunter: Neither am I.
Mr Andrew Hunter: We are all familiar with the statistics. Will the Minister clarify whether the interpretation that he is putting on them is that there is no problem with recruitment to the Police Service of Northern Ireland?
Mr Andrew Hunter: I beg to move amendment No. 67, in schedule 4, page 19, line 22, at end insert— 'Police (Northern Ireland Act 2000 (c.32) Section 47.'.
Mr Andrew Hunter: I tabled these amendments on behalf of the Democratic Unionist party, as I did the previous group, but I am conscious that they have wider support. The amendments and new clauses have a common theme: they would extend the remit of the Bill to the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, and amend that Act. New clause 4 addresses the issue of a natural entry to the police service for full-time...
Mr Andrew Hunter: I apologise for interrupting the Minister. Before he concludes his comments, will he turn from politician to historian and contemplate the fact that a significant dimension of problems was added to the so-called troubles by previous Governments taking precisely this type of decision? Will he include in his comments an awareness of that fact and assure us that the mistakes of the past are not...
Mr Andrew Hunter: I do not quarrel with the lines of argument suggested by the right hon. Gentleman or the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland, but surely the essential point was made by my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield. Since subsection (2) subordinates the relevant human rights conventions—or whatever they may be—to the Human Rights Act by means of section 6 of that Act, why on earth do we need...
Mr Andrew Hunter: I tabled amendment No. 26 on behalf of the Democratic Unionist party calling for the clause to be omitted from the Bill. That amendment was unnecessary because the clause stand part debate gives me the opportunity to make the point. The short answer to the question why clause 6 should be omitted is that there is no discernible reason for its inclusion—it is a mystery clause. The...
Mr Andrew Hunter: I said earlier that I had it in mind to divide the Committee on the clause. As we have just had a Division, it would overtax the Committee's patience if I did that. May I merely put on record my continuing objection to the clause on the grounds that it is not what the criminal justice review recommended? It has turned the recommendations on their head. It is what was agreed at Hillsborough....
Mr Andrew Hunter: With all due respect to the hon. Gentleman, I believe that he has fundamentally misunderstood what the criminal justice review states. I put it to him—if he bears with me, I shall substantiate this—that the review did not demand, or even remotely suggest, that the DPP should be obliged to refer to the police ombudsman any matter that appears to the DPP to indicate that a police officer...
Mr Andrew Hunter: I draw the hon. Gentleman's attention to the criminal justice review, where primacy is clearly given to the head of prosecution. Only when he or she is not satisfied with the article 6(3) response under the Prosecution of Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 should the ombudsman be involved. I am trying to understand the authority or experience through which the hon. Gentleman wants to...
Mr Andrew Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the planned date is by which all Child Support Agency maintenance assessments calculated under the old system will have been transferred to the new system.
