RUC officers who belong to organisations such as the loyal orders, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Freemasons will be asked to declare their membership, initially on a voluntary basis, the Northern Ireland Secretary said last night.
Registration will be private in consultation with RUC management or other bodies such as the Independent Commission for Police Complaints. But a decision on whether lists of RUC officers belonging to such organisations will be published, and which societies, bodies or private interests should be named, has been delayed while a working group is set up to consider the proposals.
Accepting the recommendation of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in its report on training, recruitment and working practices in the RUC, Dr Mo Mowlam said she fully recognised the sensitivity of the issue and the fact that the impartiality of policing in Northern Ireland must be addressed "in a transparent way".
Recruits will also be asked to register membership of private interests, but Dr Mowlam has for the moment rejected the committee's proposal that membership should, in effect, prevent recruitment to the RUC.
Ruling out the proposal in response to a parliamentary question by a Labour MP, Mr Tony McWalter, Dr Mowlam said that issue was one of the main terms of reference of the Independent Commission on Policing, under the chairmanship of Mr Chris Patten. It would therefore be "peremptory" to outpace the commission's findings, which would be published next year.
Dr Mowlam said she was less convinced that the committee's definition of "other exclusive groups who generally prohibit membership on religion grounds" was an appropriate category in the context of the proposals.
The proposal on declaring membership of private organisations already has the support of the Police Authority in Northern Ireland and the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, but the Freemasons have insisted that as a non-political, non-sectarian organisation their members should not be required to declare membership. The Apprentice Boys have indicated they do not believe membership of their organisation and membership of the RUC are incompatible.
Praising the "enormous strides" the RUC has made to improve its recruitment and training processes, Dr Mowlam said Mr Flanagan was devising a formal appeal procedure for unsuccessful candidates, and training programmes had been developed to improve awareness of community issues, equal opportunities and race relations. Specialist officers trained to deal with complaints of sectarian or sexual harassment had also been appointed.