Organisers of demonstrations in the North will be required to provide the RUC with 14 days notice of their plans, according to changes to the Public Processions (Northern Ireland) Bill put forward by the British government last night.
The proposal was widely criticised by the Tories, SDLP, UUP, DUP and the UK Unionist Party as the Bill reached its final report stage in the House of Commons.
The Northern Ireland Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, said the requirement would ensure that legislation was "balanced" and would provide valuable information for both the RUC and the Parades' Commission in regulating parades and counter-demonstrations.
However, the Tory MP, Mr Malcolm Moss, argued the proposal would have the opposite effect. The Parades' Commission would be forced "almost up against a rock and a hard place" because demonstrators would be given a "green light and an encouragement" to delay giving their notice, he said.
He posed the question for the government: "If they, the Parades' Commission, have only got several days to make a decision, do they then suspend the parade to give greater time for discussions to take place, or do they come to a rushed and hasty decision?"
The DUP leader, Dr Ian Paisley, said the proposal meant parades, and the protests against them, would be dealt with on different levels. "You can't say that all open-air meetings are of the same category . . . but here we have meetings that are organised with one purpose and that is to stop those who for years have walked a particular road."
The UK Unionist leader, Mr Robert McCartney, agreed that the proposal would not work and he called for the period of notice to be extended to 21 days. Otherwise the Parades' Commission would be forced to wait until "the 11th hour" before it could make a decision on whether a demonstration should go ahead.
The SDLP MP, Mr Eddie McGrady, said people had the right to demonstrate in a peaceful way and the proposal would make it easier for demonstrators to organise protests against peaceful marches. He added that the proposal would create a two-tier system of regulation, governed by the Parades' Commission and the RUC, which could be exploited.
Some nationalist residents have criticised the proposed measures. Cllr Breandan Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in Portadown, Co Armagh, accused the British government of capitulating to unionists.
However, Mr Gerard Rice, of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community Group, said it would abide by any code of conduct and believed wholly in peaceful protest.
Cllr Steve McBride of Alliance described the proposed amendment as "unwise, unworkable and unhelpful". "It seeks to throw a sop to unionists by drawing a false comparison between marchers and protesters which will not be in any way helpful in resolving these difficult situations.
"Those who organise marchers are part of organisations and obviously make their plans in advance. They can reasonably be expected to give notice in good time.
"Protests, on the other hand, can emerge at short notice and are not normally organised by formal organisations. To effectively make illegal a protest for which two weeks notice has not been given is an infringement of civil liberties and one which will simply increase the tension and argument," he said.
Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP gave a guarded welcome to the parades legislation. "It does not go far enough and fails to address many of the real problems of inequity and inequality which are at the heart of the parades problem," she said.