Debate contribution: Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Eóin Tennyson on .
- MLA
- Mr Eóin Tennyson
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 15 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5705724
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will make some progress and come back to the Minister. The Minister claimed that a preacher speaking from a pulpit on ordinary Church teaching on sexuality could be criminalised. That is also false. The behaviour in question has to be targeted at a specific identified individual, and general statements of opinion and belief are expressly excluded from the Bill. I wrote to the Minister's private office on 4 August offering a meeting to discuss the text of the Bill following its publication. It is regrettable that that offer has still not been taken up because I am confident that many of these concerns could have been reconciled had he taken the opportunity to speak to me in private before making public pronouncements. Separately, there has been a public assertion that an equality impact assessment has been skipped in the preparation of the Bill. Again, that is misplaced. Formal equality impact assessments under section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 are processes that can be completed only in relation to policies proposed by public bodies, so they are not available to private Members. However, that does not mean that equality and human rights considerations have not been carefully considered. They have. Compliance with section 6 of the Northern Ireland Act has been tested through the Assembly's Legal Services, engagement with the Equality Commission, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and through public consultation. Many of those claims may make for striking headlines, but they bear little resemblance to the text of the Bill. There has been broad consensus in the Assembly for a number of years on the importance of this ban. The Assembly first called for legislation in 2021, in a debate led by the Ulster Unionist Party. Former Sinn Féin Communities Ministers undertook policy development and committed to a ban. Indeed, the current Minister has referenced broad support across the Chamber for a ban. The strategy of caricature and fearmongering from some quarters calls that commitment into serious doubt. If Members are genuinely concerned about a chill factor, they would be careful not to create one themselves through inaccurate depictions of what the Bill does or does not do. There will, no doubt, be legitimate points of debate and scrutiny, which will be explored through Committee Stage.
380 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.17 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.79).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.73).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.11 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.05 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.05 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.10 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.15 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.79 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.17 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.73 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.06 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.20 |
| Adopts it | 0.01 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
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