Debate contribution: Justice Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Frew on 8 June 2026.

MLA

Mr Paul Frew

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

8 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Justice Bill: Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5600784

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The Member makes a valuable contribution. As legislators, we have to be agile in the battles out there. It is a battleground, and people are being damaged and hurt every hour of the day. This is a war, and we should counter it as such, because people are being damaged or destroyed every day. It is important that we recognise the scale of it, get to grips with it and put in place laws that are robust enough to combat it. I therefore commend amendment No 78 to the House. I move on to amendment Nos 88 and 89, which are on domestic abuse involving animals. Domestic abuse is one of the most serious safeguarding challenges that we face in Northern Ireland. Official figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) show that 30,203 domestic abuse incidents and 18,453 domestic abuse crimes were recorded in the year to September 2025. Accounting for almost one in five crimes, that is more than 80 incidents every day, with the police responding every 16 minutes, rising to around 100 call-outs per day during peak periods. However, those figures represent only part of the picture. NISRA makes it clear that they are likely an underestimation. I think that we all know, as does anyone in the field of justice with an interest in the area, that that is an underestimation. There are so many people out there who, for a multitude of reasons, have not come forward or sought help. We also know through evidence from the Links Group that 91% of victims of domestic abuse live in households with animals. Causeway Coast Dog Rescue states that many of the victims whom it supports surrender animals of less than one year old because they have nowhere to go. I drafted my amendments with my colleagues and Tara Cunningham of the Causeway Coast Dog Rescue, who was a great help, along with the Links Group, Cats Protection, Dogs Trust and Women's Aid, which all support the calls in our amendments. They have been informed by the research of Dr Mary Wakeham and the legal expertise of barrister Christina Warner, who is a family law specialist and the founder of the Ruby's law campaign, reflecting real cases in which that gap in protection has been clearly identified. The question is not whether domestic abuse law exists: it does. We have some really good domestic abuse law. The question is whether it works in the reality of every instance and whether we can improve it. Ruby's law does not create new offences; it provides clarity in existing protection orders, ensuring that the law can respond preventatively where animals are used in coercive control. It supports victims and children and first responders by giving them the legal framework to act at the point of intervention, not after harm has occurred. It is a small but significant step in ensuring that victims are not forced to choose between their safety and the safety of their pets or animals. We know about the scale of domestic abuse. We recognise coercive control, and we understand how it operates in practice. That is why we passed the laws that we did in the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021. No victim should be forced to choose between their safety and the safety of their animals, so that would be a proportionate and necessary step. The targeted proposals are to strengthen domestic abuse legislation by explicitly recognising harm or threats of harm to companion animals as a form of coercive control. That reflects clear and growing evidence of the link between animal abuse and domestic abuse particularly impacting on women, children and vulnerable families. The proposed amendments aim to recognise the use of companion animals as a tool of coercion and control, enable pets to be considered in protective orders, remove the known barrier preventing victims from leaving abusive environments and strengthen safeguards in line with the Executive's ending violence against women and girls strategic framework. Evidence shows that animal abuse is present in 88% to 91% of domestic abuse cases and is often a precursor to escalating violence. Despite that, the current legislation does not explicitly address that form of harm. We have a problem when it comes to explicitly dealing with that form of harm. The Minister has outlined the issue to me. I give this commitment to the House, the Minister and the Department: I will work with the Minister on the concerns that she has outlined about section 2 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021. There is a rationale, as the Minister outlined, for why we left the law as we did. I was all over that law at the time. I scrutinised it in Committee. The Minister will know that. I recognise the dangers of explicitly describing a certain aspect of coercive control and domestic violence.

So, I give the commitment that I will work with the Minister and the Department to try to correct that in the wording of amendment No 89 if those two amendments are passed. I give way to the Minister.

857 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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