The Police Service of Northern Ireland, the replacement for the Royal Ulster Constabulary, will receive the royal assent and be enshrined in British law by the end of next week.
The controversial Police (Northern Ireland) Bill completed its parliamentary passage at Westminster last night after the British government quashed unionist and Conservative critics by carrying its guillotine motion by 272 votes to 171. At 10.20 p.m. in the final vote of the night, MPs approved all the remaining amendments to the bill by a massive 299 votes to 81, a government majority of 218. It appeared that the SDLP's MPs had voted with the government.
Queen Elizabeth will now formally consign the name of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to the history books at a meeting of the Privy Council before the present parliamentary session ends on Thursday or Friday of next week.
A visibly angry Mr David Trimble, First Minister and UUP leader, suffered a further symbolic reversal as the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, offered the SDLP explicit assurance that its consent will be required for the symbols and flags to be used by the new service.
The Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, called for greater clarity if his party, the SDLP, was to encourage Catholics to join the new service.
As his much-disputed Bill headed for the statute book, Mr Mandelson intensified his efforts to win broad nationalist support. There were indications he might be ready to postpone the deadline for nomination by the political parties of their representatives to the new policing board until after publication of the revised plan for the implementation of the Police Bill.
During last night's debate Mr Mandelson told MPs the government had not accepted the Patten Commission's view that the symbols for the new service should necessarily be free of all association with the symbols of the British and Irish states. This, he said, was because "I have never seen the issue of symbols as an issue of sovereignty". He added: "This is not how others see it."
Conservative peers had argued that the existing RUC cap badge should be retained because it symbolised Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom. Mr Mandelson said: "This brings out why the presence of the crown is objectionable to many nationalists, because it identifies the police with one side of the constitutional argument."
Mr Mandelson accepted Mr Jeffrey Donaldson's contention that the harp and shamrock reflected for many a cross-community dimension to the existing insignia. But others had made it a constitutional argument, said Mr Mandelson. "It is at that point where we are in danger of crossing the line . . . when we are using the symbol of the crown as a proxy for continuing the constitutional argument."
He added: "What ultimately matters is achieving something that will get us consensus rather than controversy. By consensus I am not talking about a 10-to-9 or even a 14-to-5 vote, a narrow vote with a thin majority".
If the decision on symbols ultimately fell to him, Mr Mandelson said he would require "majority support from each community on the board".
Government officials subsequently said Mr Mandelson did not envisage the board members - 10 elected representatives and nine independents - designating themselves as unionists or nationalists.