Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-05-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the purpose of the concept of parity of esteem as applied to Northern Ireland; and why those standards of esteem are not applied in the rest of the UK.

Lord Dunlop

‘Parity of esteem’ is expressed and defined in the 1998 Belfast Agreement in relation to people living in Northern Ireland. That Agreement was reached following talks between the then UK Labour Government, several of Northern Ireland’s political parties – including the Ulster Unionist Party, Sinn Fein and others – and the then Irish Government. This Government sees parity of esteem as treating everybody in Northern Ireland fairly, with equal respect, just as it is committed to treating people fairly and with equal respect wherever they live in the United Kingdom.