Westminster notes
Bill committees attract attention
Ian Paisley Junior’s comments on organised crime have focused attention on one of the lesser-known and less reported parts of Parliament: public Bill committees.
The DUP MP alleged a link between Sinn Féin and organised crime in South Armagh while taking part in the Crime and Courts Bill Committee. Sinn Féin has strongly denied the allegation and called on Paisley to produce evidence. Nationalists claim that the planned National Crime Agency will be unaccountable in Northern Ireland.
Public Bill committees scrutinise bills line-by-line after they receive their second reading. The committees receive much less media coverage than select committees (such as the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee) due to their faster pace, the greater level of detail and the large number of bills before Parliament.
MPs are often more frank in these debates than in the Commons chamber. In a debate on the Protection of Freedoms Bill, in May 2011, Jim Shannon commented that the British army “does not have the active role on the streets of Northern Ireland that it once had” and added:
“I would like to see it on the streets.”
The DUP declined to comment on the comments of either MP. All meetings are in public except for brief private sessions in which MPs decide the line of questioning. Transcripts of committee meetings are published in Hansard.
Policy change for political donations
Confidentiality for local political donations is due to end on 30 September 2014, under draft legislation announced by the NIO. The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill will be scrutinised by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and is to be debated in the 2013-2014 parliamentary session.
Details of political party donors are published in Great Britain but kept confidential in Northern Ireland.
The policy has been justified on personal security grounds but opponents point out that this limits transparency.
Donations made between 1 November 2007 and 30 September 2014 will still be kept confidential, unless donors give express consent for their identity to be published. The Electoral Commission and most of the parties claim that individuals who donated during that period would expect that information to stay confidential, even after September 2014.
In 2011, Sinn Fein had the largest total income of the main parties: £1,266,079.
This was followed by the DUP (£615,052), the SDLP (£429,941), the UUP (£353,583) and the Alliance Party (£201,520).
New communications chief
The UK Government has appointed Alex Aiken as its new Executive Director of Government Communications. Aiken, who will take up post in April, was previously Director of Communications and Strategy at Westminster City Council.
