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
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5762765
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for giving way. He has been generous in giving way. I have to challenge what he says because it is manifestly untrue. He is right when he asserts that the definition of coercive behaviour is lifted from domestic abuse legislation. We have learned from that legislation. At the moment, that applies where people are personally connected, and we are seeking to apply that definition to a broader range of relationships. That is why we have raised the harm threshold and have an additional test of intent: there are more legal tests and requirements to be met before an offence would be found for this legislation than for existing domestic abuse legislation. At the moment, the behaviour of a parent towards a 16-year-old child could fall under domestic abuse legislation. Can the Member point to a child or parent who has been prosecuted as a result of ordinary discipline under domestic abuse legislation? That has not happened, because it does not cause harm and is reasonable. In addition, it is not, under this legislation, motivated by a desire to suppress or change sexual orientation or gender identity. In the vast majority of cases, it is motivated by the welfare of the child. Therefore, what the Member has claimed about ordinary discipline and other parental activity being captured is simply not true, but that falsehood has been repeated ad nauseam in the debate.
The Bill is really clear that a failure to do a thing is not a conversion practice. Failure to act in a way that another person expects is not in itself a conversion practice and is not coercive behaviour under the legislation.
Will the Member give way?
No. I am happy to proceed.
288 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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