Debate contribution: Justice Bill: Consideration Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Doug Beattie MC on .
- MLA
- Mr Doug Beattie MC
- Party at the time
- Independent
- Date
- 16 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Justice Bill: Consideration Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5624834
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you for the intervention. As I said at the start, we can disagree agreeably. Some will definitely want the minimum age of criminal responsibility to be 14. Some will want the age to stay at 10. I think that 10 is too young, so I proposed that it be 12. I will not be the person who stands here and says that my amendment does not need work. If it needs work, it needs work. I am happy to do that work. However, the principle is sound. The reality is that we were always going to be in this space. We were always going to be in this space because of confidence. Whether we like it or not, we are in a closed bubble in the Chamber and not living out there and hearing what people think, but there is a lack of confidence. While I understand the reasons why we are doing this through amendments, doing it in that way does not bring confidence. Having such a big jump from the age of 10 to the age of 14 was always going to result in kickback. I always saw that coming. That is one of the reasons why I tried to soften it. I did not want to have this conversation through amendments. However, that is where we find ourselves. I tried to soften that —
— just to try to get something across the line. What I do not want to do is have the same debate next year, the year after or at a later stage, or have something that will corrupt our politics. I think that it already has. I will give way to the Minister.
Well, as I said at the very start, Minister, I would not have signed the petition of concern. I stand in this corner because of the principle that I have on this particular issue — along with other issues, of course. I take on board exactly what you are saying. However, I have to be honest: it was always going to end up like this because it is such a change —
— from 10 to 14. The Ulster Unionist Party's signing is up to the Ulster Unionist Party.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Look, we can all have a bit of a laugh at this as well, though it is a serious issue. Minister, I have not given up on the age of 12. I certainly have not. Do you know what? We have 14 days. I have 14 days to persuade.
I intend to use the 14 days to persuade. I may fail, but I will try. That means trying to persuade my former colleagues and the DUP's justice spokesperson and Chair of the Justice Committee. We can accept that we have failed, at the minute, to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility — for me, to 12 — but that does not mean that it stops. It does not mean that it has gone. It just means that we have to realign ourselves and try something —.
Yes, of course.
I thank the Member for his intervention and for raising my morale a little bit there. It is a real, fair point. There are people who may well see the amendment's merits, and, if those merits mean that we can raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility and still hold perpetrators of those serious crimes to account, there is something to work on there. That is what I intend to do.
I thank the Member for the intervention. I do not want to get into the game of saying that I am finishing and then not finish, so I am finishing. Last night became a blood sport in this place. I have to be honest. I have to say this, and I am being honest with everybody: it was a two-way blood sport; a three-way blood sport; a four-way blood sport. It was all over the place. We do not need to see that again. We are talking about a really important issue here. We are debating an important issue. There is an outcome, and I am willing to work to try to get people to agree on my amendment.
704 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.