Pressure builds on parties to decide future of policing

The Secretary of State has increased pressure on political parties in Northern Ireland to make a decision on whether they will endorse the province’s new police service.

Dr John Reid has written to the main parties to ask them to make their nominations to the new Police Board.

The new police board is to take over the role of the Police Authority and is central to plans for a new policing future in Northern Ireland. It will oversee the changeover from the existing Royal Ulster Constabulary to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, as well as the operation of the new service.

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist assembly members and MPs have met on Tuesday 18 September at Stormont to consider nominations to the Police Board and the way forward for the assembly. Over the next three days interviews are being held to select the nine independent members who will sit on the 19-member board, with the remaining ten places to be divvied up between the province’s four main political parties. To date the SDLP remain the only party to have signed up to the police board.

Last month the government published its revised plan for implementing the changes to policing in the Northern Ireland Police Act as part of a package of proposals aimed at finding an overall resolution to the issues blocking the political process. The 10-page document was drawn up after intensive talks had failed to reach an agreement.

Sinn Fein rejected the policing plan outright, saying it did not bring the legislation into line with the recommendations of the Patten Commission on the Future of Policing.

The Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party withheld their decision on the document as both parties expressed grave concerns about the phasing out of the full time reserves, flag and emblem issues, which the new police board would have some control over. (AMcE)