No DPP seats for ex-prisoners before 'acts of completion'

The government has said that ex-prisoners can only serve on District Policing Partnerships (DPPs) after republicans had successfully made "acts of completion".

Speaking ahead of the publication of the government's draft policing bill, Secretary of State Paul Murphy said that he was "not yet persuaded that the time is right to introduce changes" to the rules governing the eligibility of ex-prisoners to stand on DPPs.

Mr Murphy added: "The removal of the disqualification of ex-prisoners could, in our view, happen only in the context of acts of completion, such as those envisaged by the Prime Minister in his speech in Belfast last month."

The SDLP took credit for the amendments saying the party had "won detailed commitments at Weston Park to new policing legislation to ensure that the legislative framework for policing in Northern Ireland fully reflects the requirements of the Patten report".

The government has published a document on the issue of DPPs and the Belfast sub-group, setting out how it could proceed on the issue – if progress can be achieved.

Mr Murphy said: "I believe it would be helpful to set out how we would intend to deal with these two issues, should we, at some point in the future, conclude that the time is right to legislate on them."

Elsewhere, in a Statement to the House of Commons today, Mr Murphy told MPs that draft clauses of the review of policing arrangements in Northern Ireland were currently being sent to the parties this afternoon.

On the review of the agreement which began two weeks ago, the Secretary of State explained that it would not formally conclude until the government had received a report from the Oversight Commissioner at the start of December. However, he said that it remained the government's intention to introduce legislation to Parliament before Christmas.

Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, Dan Crompton, was published on 6 November and the Oversight Commissioner, Tom Constantine, is expected to publish his report in early December.

(GMcG)