Parade legislation remains stalled

The Draft Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Bill was one of the key outcomes of last February’s Hillsborough Agreement with the DUP and Sinn Féin setting up a working group to agree a new bill to deal with parades and demonstrations and phase out the Parades Commission.

But the proposed legislation was rejected by the Orange Order, trade unions and dissident republican organisations - all of whom raised concerns over restrictions on freedom of assembly proposed by the draft bill.

Last August the First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness outlined changes to the draft legislation - principally removing open-air public meetings from the bill - and published a summary of consultation responses.

They proposed several key amendments to the draft Bill and said it would be introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly in September 2010.

But this didn’t happen and at the end of September Mr Robinson said the legislation had been put on hold after its rejection by the Orange Order and that it was inevitable the Parades Commission would be reappointed for another year.

Had the bill been presented to the Executive in September as planned it would have been ready this month.

But answering a query at the Assembly last week the First and Deputy First Minister said the bill had been scrapped indefinitely.

In a joint statement they stated: “We announced our intention to amend the draft Bill following consultation. Following analysis of the consultation responses we have not decided to proceed at this time.”

OFMDFM previously outlined the key principles of the proposed new law as: “local people providing local solutions; respect for the rights of those who parade, and respect for the rights of those who live in areas through which they seek to parade. This includes the right for everyone to be free from sectarian harassment; recognising that at time there are competing rights; transparency, openness and fairness; and independent decision making.”

Four hundred and ten responses to the consultation process were received by OFMDFM.

The vast majority of respondents complained of the inclusion of Public Meetings under the definition of public assemblies and a number felt the Bill should be abandoned in its entirety.

Some respondents felt the consultation process was unsatisfactory whilst others felt the working Group went beyond its original remit.

A small number felt the penalties being imposed for infringement were disproportionate to possible offence and that there was inbuilt bias against the Loyal Orange Orders.