§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will instruct the Parades Commission, in reaching its decisions, to publish its decisions relating to each individual criterion contained in the legislation and to indicate what weighting is given to each criterion in each decision. [46997]
§ Mr. IngramThe Parades Commission is an independent body and as such it would not be appropriate for the Secretary of State to instruct it in the way suggested. It is entirely a matter for the Parades Commission to decide the format in which it should publish its decisions under the Public Processions (Northern Ireland) Act 1998. In any case, the determinations published by the Parades Commission to date have, in the Government's view, set out very comprehensively the way in which the Commission has approached the particular parade in question and, in particular, have in each case clearly stated how the Commission has addressed each of the statutory factors which it is required to take into account.