Debate contribution: Courts: Trials of the Facts
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Courts: Trials of the Facts
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795782
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Health Minister and I are jointly commissioning an external independent review into the law and procedures on unfitness to plead, including trials of the facts. The review responds to my concerns about whether the current arrangements are fair to defendants and victims and provide adequate protection for the public. The Departments have worked at pace to establish the review and, having had the agreement of the Minister of Health this morning, the terms of reference will be published tomorrow, together with an announcement on who will lead the review. The review will be wide-ranging and will examine how decisions on fitness are made and what happens when a defendant cannot stand trial. Importantly, the review will hear directly from victims and others with experience of the process. Their experiences will help inform an assessment of where change is needed. The review will provide an interim report by 15 February 2027, which we intend to publish before Assembly dissolution. A final report will follow later in spring 2027.
168 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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