Debate contribution: Justice Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Frew on 22 June 2026.

MLA

Mr Paul Frew

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

22 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Justice Bill: Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5639136

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I will commence the debate on group 9, which is the final group of amendments to be debated at Consideration Stage of the Justice Bill. We are into the sixth day of debate, although they have not been complete days of debate. That just shows the importance, the depth and the detail of the Bill.

These will be my final opening comments of the debate, so I want to take the opportunity to thank the Justice Committee staff; particularly the Committee Clerk, but all the staff who have supported members throughout the Committee Stage of the Bill. I also thank the officials in all the areas of the Department who have engaged with me in my capacity as my party's justice spokesperson and as Committee Chair. I thank them for their engagement not only with the Justice Committee but with all the Members who have taken an interest in the Bill and taken part in the debates. Finally, I thank the Minister for her contribution to all the debates, and I thank all Members for the calibre of the debates. There was only one night when it went off-piste. The rest of the time, there has been really good debate. I am heartened by the calibre of the debate that we have had in the House on the very detailed clauses and amendments and by what we have grappled with as legislators in this place. I thank every single Member for taking part. My party's amendment No 96 relates to the day of release from detention. Our objective is to amend the Prison and Young Offenders Centre Rules (Northern Ireland) 1995 to allow for the release of a prisoner on a day other than a Friday or any day before a bank holiday. The rationale for that is that prisoners who are released on, say, a Friday afternoon without having accommodation organised often find themselves in a situation where Housing Executive offices are closed and will not reopen until the following Monday. That leaves them without accommodation for a whole weekend. It is not just about housing; it could be assistance with health, drug awareness or support, financial issues or a whole raft of things that might then lead to that person reoffending. The amendment is not just about tackling reoffending rates. My party has always been tough on crime. This is about ensuring that we are smart on crime and smart on justice. The amendment goes some way to achieving that by supporting people who have served time in prison but have the same human rights as everyone else. They need that support. Many of those offenders have vulnerabilities that led to their imprisonment. We should acknowledge that. I want to take the opportunity to thank the Prison Service officials, at the highest level, who met me to discuss and work through the amendment. I also thank the Turnaround Project, the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO) and everyone else in the sector, in charitable organisations and other organisations, who support prisoners in that guise. They all came together and met me to discuss the amendment. Some of them — in fact, most of the groups that I met — were quite disappointed when I actually went through the detail of my amendment and they realised that it does not cover all prisoners. The amendment covers adult sentenced prisoners because only they are captured in paragraph 6 of rule 30 of the Prison and Young Offenders Centre Rules (Northern Ireland) 1995, which I hope to omit. I will explain a wee bit about that because Members need the explanation.

Currently, five different kinds of release can take place on a Friday or Saturday. First, we have individuals who are released from court on a Friday after time served on remand. That is where a remand prisoner is produced to court on a Friday and sentenced to a period of custody that is shorter than the time that they have already been held on remand, and they are released forthwith. At that point, the Prison Service has no lawful warrant to further detain them. That can apply to adult sentenced prisoners and those who are sentenced under the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008. For both cadres of prisoner, release is immediate. Of course, having time served, and, in fact, in some cases, having already spent more time served on remand, they are released and free to go, because they have served their sentence. The problem there, of course, is the number of people whom we have on remand. However, 42% of remand prisoners are released by court, so there is that problem when they are just released —.

I thank the Minister for that. The second reason that prisoners are released on a Friday or a Saturday is that those are remand prisoners who perfect bail on a Friday. That is where bail may be granted by a court on any day from a Monday to a Friday. Despite bail being granted, it is common for conditions to be set by a judge that must be perfected or met before the prisoner can leave custody. Experience suggests that more bails are perfected towards the end of the working week, for example, where solicitors work with the PSNI to agree bail addresses, as sureties are met, and when other conditions, which can take some to arrange, are satisfied. Once bail is perfected, the Prison Service must release the individual, regardless of day of the week. Any work that gets going on that will be much welcomed. The third reason is for prisoners who are sentenced under the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008. Those individuals are released on the day that they reach their custody expiry date, unless it falls on a Sunday. Individuals who are due for release on a Sunday are released on the Saturday. Article 8(6) of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 eliminated remission of sentences that previously allowed prisoners to be released early, so prison rule 30 does not therefore apply to the prisoner group. Instead, those offenders must now serve their full custody period, followed by a period of statutory, post-release supervision. The only days that those prisoners cannot be released on are a Sunday, Christmas Day and Good Friday, a custom that is enshrined in section 12(2) of the Prisons Act 1898. In those cases, releases take place on the next preceding eligible day. We should also state that, in those cases, there will be a period of work whereby people are prepared for release. The fourth group are prisoners whose release is directed by the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland (PCNI) on a Friday. With the exception of life-sentenced prisoners, the Prison Service is expected to release a prisoner on the day on which their release is directed by the Parole Commissioners. Therefore, PCNI-directed releases can be on a Friday. In most cases, as in the one that I have just talked about, those releases will have been planned some weeks in advance, so issues such as accommodation and other resettlement matters will already, hopefully, be in place. However, in some instances, where the Probation Board has not supported release, resettlement arrangements, including accommodation, will not have been made. However, release must take place, regardless. Therefore, there are areas in which prisoners are released that will not fall under the amendment. However, when I spoke to all the sectors and all the charitable and other organisations that were involved, they wanted my amendment to release all prisoners. Therefore, I ask, depending on how the debate goes, that we, if the House passes the amendment, consider, at Further Consideration Stage, thinking about those other prisoners. I ask the Minister to consider that also, because I would not want to do anything at Further Consideration Stage — if the amendment passes in the House tonight or on Tuesday — that the Department was not in lockstep with and supportive of.

So, this then goes on —.

Yes, I will.

1,341 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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