Policing In Northern Ireland And The Patten Report

EDM number 963 in 1998-99, proposed by Frank Field on 01/11/1999.

That this House believes that the style of policing in Northern Ireland is largely a product of the Troubles during which one third of serving RUC officers were killed or injured in efforts to defend society throughout these islands against sectarian Loyalist and Republican terrorism; acknowledges and supports the need for constructive changes to policing in Northern Ireland as part of building a new society on the basis of the Good Friday Agreement; welcomes very many of the recommendations in the report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland which advocate improvements in training, information technology, human rights awareness and cross-border co-operation; notes with grave concern that the report fails to recognise properly the courage and sacrifice RUC officers have shown in Northern Ireland, fails to appreciate the high level of trust in the RUC recorded in opinion polls and fails to find a new name which is acceptable to the majority of both communities; is concerned that the premature implementation of some security sensitive measures could demoralise serving officers, weaken intelligence gathering capability and potentially expose policing to paramilitary infiltration and subversion welcomes the Government's statement that any legislation arising from this report would need a large number of safeguards; and calls on the Government to explicitly link major reform of the RUC with paramilitaries' decommissioning.

This motion has been signed by a total of 7 MPs.