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 5762868
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for giving way and for raising that point. As the Bill sponsor, I have found her contribution so far to be insightful and constructive, and it has been useful for me to listen to her views. On that particular point, the Member is right that an exception for under-16s exists in domestic abuse law. The reason that it is not included in the Bill, however, is so as not to allow, where abuse happens, a blanket carveout for parents. As the Member will know, the 2021 Act also amended the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1968 so that psychological harm comes under the auspices of that legislation where there are allegations of domestic abuse or cruelty towards a child. There is therefore still provision in law that, where psychological harm is caused to a child, that can still be prosecuted. That was another outworking of the 2021 Act. I am conscious of what the Member has said, however, and that is why, having reflected on the views that Members have expressed in the debate, the harm threshold is really important in order to ensure that we strike the right balance and do not create the chill factor for parents that they might be prosecuted, even if that would not be the outworking of the legislation. I would be really keen to engage with the Member further on that matter.
235 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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