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Mr Eóin Tennyson: Assembly records
All of Mr Eóin Tennyson’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not qualifying, uncertain or not yet analysed.
At the moment, if a professional is not acting in line with their code of ethics or their professional standards, their regulatory and professional bodies will launch an investigation, which could result in their being struck off and not permitted to practise. The Bill explicitly excludes health professionals who are…
There is clearly a public debate taking place on trans healthcare and what the pathway should look like, and I do not dispute that different views have been expressed. There is, however, broad consensus among medical and psychotherapy organisations that conversion therapy is not acceptable. For example, Professor Cass…
I thank the Member for giving way. Mr Brett is correct in that we consulted on a definition of "harm" that was "fear, alarm or substantial distress". At consultation stage, there was significant opposition to any firm harm requirement. People pointed to domestic abuse and other offences where harm need not be proven…
I thank the Member for giving way and promise that this will be my last intervention for a while. I am genuinely at a loss as to the point that the Member is trying to make. Do I understand him correctly? Is he concerned about a scenario in which, for example, a transgender athlete is playing sport, and the coach…
I thank the Member for giving way. We are at risk of straying into reductio ad absurdum at this point of the debate. The simple fact that someone is a football coach does not mean that, if they had a conversation about sexuality or gender, they would be found guilty of coaching or instructing an individual as part of…
I thank the Member for giving way. In response to the Minister: to be clear, in respect of the first offence of "conversion therapy", that can be one occasion — that is the intent. Apologies, Minister, if I misspoke earlier in the debate, but the course of behaviour relates to the second offence. The question before…
I thank the Member for giving way. He questioned the use of a defence of reasonableness in the legislation. Correct me if I am wrong, but did the DUP object to the use of a reasonableness defence in any of the Bills that have passed through the Assembly, or does a different standard apply to this Bill?
I thank the Member for giving way. The Chair of the Justice Committee is well versed in this process and has been through it with a number of Bills. He knows that, when dealing with a potentially broad range of behaviours, the approach that is taken in criminal law is to outline the intent, the act and the…
I thank the Member for giving way. As I discussed in my opening remarks and in other interventions, the "fear, alarm or distress" formulation was selected in order to be consistent with domestic abuse law. However, I have already indicated to Members that the harm threshold is a policy choice for the Assembly. If…
The Member has overlooked, again, that the Bill is explicit that failure to do a thing is not a conversion practice; that is in the Bill. Therefore, not acting in a particular way would not be captured; it has to be proactive coercive behaviour. Aidan O'Neill is one KC. He is a KC who also said that equal marriage…
I thank the Member for giving way. He has hit, perhaps not intentionally, on an important point, which is that the definitions and wording that we have employed in the legislation are deliberately universal in nature. So, just as someone would be criminalised if they were engaging in a course of conversion therapy…
The Member will be aware, because he has read the consultation document, that we did not ask individual respondents for their address. That was intentional, because those with lived experience of conversion practice in particular find even talking about their experience to be so traumatic that they wanted to have…
I am happy to intervene if the Member wants to take an intervention. To be clear, when we were developing the Bill, we looked at having two intent tests: an intent to change and suppress sexual orientation or gender identity; and an intent to cause harm. The problem is that mens rea — a person's mental state when they…
I am happy to repeat myself. The safeguards in the Bill are these: the individual must be operating with intent; there must be either a formal course of therapy or a coercive course of behaviour consistent with the definition employed in domestic abuse law; there must be a specific, identified victim; and the…