SUSPENSION AND REVIVAL OF SECTION I (Hansard, 30 October 1995)

§ Mr. Dowd

As the Secretary of State said earlier, the power granted in clause 3 will come into effect only in very serious circumstances, or at least we imagine that to be the case and hope that such circumstances will not arise. However, clause 3 seems rather a blunt instrument. We understand why it is included, but it is all or nothing. We can envisage circumstances, for example, in which one particular group could so upset the current progress in Northern Ireland that its prisoners could not be released. Would that then mean that the Secretary of State was forced to take such blanket action against everyone, even prisoners associated with other groups that were not necessarily involved in jeopardising the progress?

Clause 3 seems entirely unselective, but clause 1(2) states: A person to whom this section applies shall be released". There is no discretion in clause 1(2); does clause 3 not provide any either?

§ Sir Patrick Mayhew

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's interesting contribution. I understand what lies behind it, but the problem lies in part in the difficulty of precisely identifying an affiliation with one particular group or paramilitary organisation. Sometimes that affiliation is abundantly clear and admits of no shading; in other instances, there is shading.

The right way to proceed is to provide what the hon. Gentleman rightly describes as the blanket power to suspend, or later revive, the operation of clause 1 but to bear in mind always that the effect of the revocation will not be retrospective on someone who has already been licensed and that the revocation of the licence of someone who has already been licensed will depend on the circumstances pertaining particularly to that person. Those two factors, I think, avoid the risk of taking too broad an approach. I think that that is what lies behind the hon. Gentleman's submission.