Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McCartney): We will move now to the next item on the agenda, which is the charge of police corruption.

Mr John Larkin (Attorney General for Northern Ireland): In short, I do not think that this is necessary. It arose in a speech that the Home Secretary made in response to an inquiry. It is interesting that the inquiry's terms of reference did not ask the inquiry chair to make any reference to the adequacy or otherwise of the offence of misfeasance in public office. In my view, the offence of misfeasance in public office has a broad reach and is capable of catching any police officer who behaves corruptly on duty.

The important thing to remember about a police officer on duty — in some respects, this is one of the advantages of the common law — is that the concept of being on duty is highly variable. If an off-duty police officer is walking down the street and observes an attack on another citizen and does not intervene or take appropriate action, that officer will be disciplined for neglect of duty, because the mere fact of the event occurring will be deemed to have put him on duty, such is the nature of responsibility. So, one can see from that that the reach of the concept of duty for the police is very large, and I think that the existing common law offence of misfeasance is broad enough to encompass it.

I speak subject to correction, but my understanding is that the English Law Commission will be looking at the offence of misfeasance. The Committee may think that, as the English Law Commission will spend some time looking at it in detail, it might be useful to abide by its work in the area.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McCartney): A letter received this morning stated that, because of your views and the fact that the Law Commission is meeting in England and Wales, the Minister is reserving his position on taking this forward. In the light of that, we wanted to have your views on the record. If members have questions in the future for the Minister, they can make their views known.

There are no questions. Thank you for the detail and the evidence that you provided. It will be very useful for us as we take these matters forward.

Mr Larkin: I am very grateful, Chair. Obviously, I am happy to assist the Committee with follow-up questions in writing.