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

Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on 28 September 2026.

MLA: Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 28 September 2026
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5762919

Text

I thank the Minister for giving way. As he knows, there is significant concern and apprehension about the Bill and understandably so. I find it to be one of the most extraordinarily dangerously drafted pieces of legislation, given what it could do. It is incredibly important that there be certainty. The Minister has outlined situations that the Bill sponsor has indicated that the courts would need to look at, but the important point to make is that, by the time a person gets to court, they would have been through an entire process in which they had been prosecuted and, because of the legislation, perhaps did not have that certainty. Does the Minister agree that that certainty is important not just for the judges and those implementing the law but because it is a core, basic legal principle that the ordinary citizen must have legal certainty about whether they are committing a criminal offence. Otherwise, by the time the case gets to court, it would be much too late.
Yes.

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

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