To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon on 13 May (WA 207), what are the numbers of commissioners on the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission who are Protestants or Catholics; which commissioners have a nationalist or unionist background; with which political parties commissioners had associations before their appointment; whether the figures reflect the community balance in Northern Ireland; and what that balance is estimated to be. [HL3866]

All candidates for membership of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission are required to declare community background and political activity.

Five commissioners have declared their background as that of the Catholic community, four have declared their background as that of the Protestant community and one has declared that they do not have a Protestant or Catholic community background.

Seven commissioners have declared political activity on behalf of the Alliance Party, DUP, SDLP, UUP and Northern Ireland Women's Coalition.

Under Section 68(3) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the Secretary of State is obliged, when making appointments to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, to secure as far as practicable, that the commissioners as a group are representative of the community in Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is satisfied that this statutory obligation has been, and continues to be, met.

The most recent official statistics on community background in Northern Ireland can be found in the 2001 Census. These figures show the community balance to be 45.57 per cent Protestant, 40.26 per cent Catholic, 0.3 per cent others and 13.88 per cent non-stated.