§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will deposit in the Libraries of Parliament copies of the evidence received from the public in the Community Consultation on the Future of Policing in Northern Ireland, together with any comments or views subsequently expressed by the Secretary of State, chief constable or police authority, and if not, why not.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office (Baroness Denton of Wakefield)The Police Authority for Northern Ireland is a statutory body established under the Police Act (Northern Ireland) 1970. A copy of its Community122WA Consultation Report has been placed in the Libraries of Parliament, as have the press releases issued by the Minister of State just prior to publication and by the RUC on the day of publication. The Government have written to the chairman of the police authority to begin dialogue on how the conclusions and proposals in the report should be taken forward.
I understand that the evidence on which the police authority's report is based is threefold; letters and submissions, seminars and a public opinion survey. The letters and submissions as well as the seminars were carried out on an "in confidence" basis and it would not be appropriate to place further details of these in the Libraries. All the tables compiled from the public opinion survey are contained in Appendix 6 to the report.