Debate contribution: Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mrs Diane Dodds on 15 September 2026.

MLA: Mrs Diane Dodds
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 15 September 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5705873

Text

Let me proceed, because I have only a few minutes before the break. I promise that we can all discuss it in great detail thereafter. I was also interested in the Member's explanation for the lack of an equality impact assessment of the Bill. Like the Member, I have been following some of the commentary on the Bill. Lest the Member think that there is a DUP gang-up on him, I will quote someone who might not normally be associated with DUP views. Writing in 'The Irish News', Newton Emerson commented on that very important aspect of the Bill, specifically the lack of comment or interrogation from the Equality Commission and the Human Rights Commission and the fact that no equality impact assessment has been undertaken. I accept that the Member said that that is not available for a Member's Bill and that such things should be for public bodies to do, but, when I last thought of the Equality Commission and the Human Rights Commission, it seemed that they are public bodies with considerable funding and high numbers of legally qualified people. They chose, however, neither to comment on the Bill nor to say that it was worthy of an equality impact assessment. That is all the more extraordinary because the Bill poses an extraordinary imposition on free expression and association and freedom of belief. That is quite an extraordinary position for the Equality Commission and the Human Rights Commission to take. They are charged with protecting fundamental freedoms, yet, in this instance, they chose not to conduct an equality impact assessment. For many out there, including folks who are listening to the debate, that is about the cosy consensus of the liberal elite in our society, who do not really care about real-life impacts or real people when it comes to what they see or do. It is also about the fact that many of them declared themselves to be in favour of a conversion therapy ban, even before the Bill appeared. Newton Emerson, who is, again, probably not that aligned with my thinking on some of those things, talks about "group-think" and the cosy "liberal consensus" on such issues. Honestly, it is time for a clear-out of some of those organisations, so that we can rely on them to interrogate controversial legislative proposals.
May I respond to the intervention before we break for lunch?
I mean Peter's intervention.

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

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