Debate contribution: Justice Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 1 October 2024.

MLA

Mrs Naomi Long

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

1 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Justice Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4562463

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am pleased to bring my Justice Bill before the Assembly today. On my reappointment as Minister of Justice in February 2024 —.

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am pleased to do this a second time. I am pleased to bring the Justice Bill to the Assembly today. On my reappointment as Minister of Justice in February 2024, I agreed my legislative programme to continue reform of our justice system into a better system for everyone concerned. That includes this general justice Bill, a sentencing Bill and a victims Bill. The mixed-content Justice Bill before the Assembly today is another step forward in that reform programme, and I am committed to improving the operation and effectiveness of the justice system through this wide-ranging legislation. The Bill consists of 34 clauses over five Parts and has four key principles. The first is to amend the retention periods for biometric material. The second is to make changes to bail and custody arrangements for children and young people. The third is to improve services for victims and witnesses. Finally, the fourth is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of aspects of the justice system. Part 1 of the Bill creates a new framework for the retention and destruction of DNA and fingerprints in Northern Ireland. Article 64 of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (PACE) is the current legislation in Northern Ireland governing that. It provides that the PSNI may retain the DNA and fingerprints of an individual who has been arrested for a recordable offence indefinitely, irrespective of whether they were convicted. The current legislation has been found in two separate judgements of the European Court of Human Rights to be in contravention of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The first judgement dates back to December 2008, Marper v UK, whilst the latest judgement was delivered in February 2020, Gaughran v UK. The Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2013 was passed by the House on 25 April 2013 in response to the Marper judgement. However, it was not possible to commence those provisions due to the need to preserve biometric material that may be required for future legacy investigations. The Gaughran judgement has since resulted in elements of the 2013 Act being assessed as not being compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights. Therefore, it is necessary to revisit the legislation and produce amended proposals for consideration by the Assembly. Part 1 of the Justice Bill will amend the current law by removing indefinite retention and introducing maximum retention periods for biometric material taken in Northern Ireland. The retention period will depend on a number of factors, including the seriousness of the offence, the age of the individual, the individual's criminal history and the disposal given. In general, if the individual is not convicted, their material will not be retained. The Bill will also introduce a regulation-making power that will require the Chief Constable to carry out a meaningful review of long-term retained biometric material. The review process will include an independent complaints process. The Bill also contains provision for the appointment of a new Northern Ireland Commissioner for the Retention of Biometric Material. That will provide important independent oversight of the operation of the new retention framework and review process. The commissioner will also have responsibility for keeping under review emerging biometric technologies that are being used or may be used by the PSNI. That is a balanced and proportionate approach. It responds to the European Court's rulings and protects the individual's right to privacy. It also recognises the public interest in enabling the police to make effective use of biometric data in protecting the public and in the prevention and detection of crime. Members will appreciate that this is a complex area. During the recent drafting process, my officials identified some amendments and additions that are needed to provide greater clarity and ensure the effective operation of the provisions. I intend to table those amendments at Consideration Stage. Members will, of course, be aware that the clauses were originally drafted some time ago for inclusion in a mixed-content Bill in the last mandate. It was through the revision of those that we found further room for improvement. Part 2 contains provisions to amend existing legislation and covers bail, remand and custody for children in order to enhance compliance with article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The provisions ensure compliance by strengthening the existing presumption of bail for children and introducing unconditional bail as standard and a requirement that any conditions applied should be proportionate and necessary. They introduce specific conditions that must be met before a child can be remanded into custody and underpin the current administrative arrangements that exist around the separation of children and adults in custodial settings. The underpinning of current administrative arrangements will be achieved through the replacement of two existing youth-specific custodial orders, which are also location-specific, with a new youth custody and supervision order. The provisions also set it out in statute that, where a court remands or commits a child to custody, the child must be detained in a child-appropriate location — that is a juvenile justice centre. The amendments to PACE in clauses 20 and 21 will enable videoconferencing technology, referred to as "live links", to be used for a number of custody functions. Those functions include the extension of detention by both the police and the courts and police interviews with the suspect. Additionally, the provisions make minor amendments to PACE to replace any references to "videoconferencing" with "live link", thus ensuring the continuity of terminology throughout PACE legislation. The provisions are part of the Department's digital strategy, and we are keen to facilitate the use of live links in as wide a range of circumstances as is appropriate. Live links are already used in courts for a wide range of functions, including preliminary hearings, certain sentencing and appeal hearings and the giving of evidence by vulnerable witnesses, defendants and appellants. The prisons and courts also regularly use live links for remand hearings. Operationally, the introduction of live links for police detention and interviews will mean that they can be dealt with more swiftly. That will result in a more efficient use of police resources. The use of live links could also result in efficiencies in travel and escort costs. All of the proposed functions in the use of live links are already available to police forces in England and Wales by virtue of the Policing and Crime Act 2017. I am keen to facilitate similar arrangements in Northern Ireland not only for the reasons that I have outlined but to avoid putting the PSNI at any disadvantage compared with its UK counterparts. Part 4 has five components that share a common focus on the administration of justice. The first of those provisions, at clause 22, seeks to amend the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 to provide the Northern Ireland Policing Board with the power to delegate certain matters to board officials in response to the judgement in the case of McKee and Others v the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Those include a number of decision-making roles on matters such as pensions forfeiture, ill-health retirement, injury on duty and other miscellaneous benefits. That arrangement is necessary for practical reasons, given the volume of casework involved and the number of decisions required to be made in a timely manner. Clause 23 will remove section 29 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, which requires the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) to audit the Policing Board's performance plan and performance review. The amendment is being made following a recommendation by the former Comptroller and Auditor General and would bring the position in Northern Ireland into line with that in England and Wales. However, the provisions at section 30 of the Act would remain in place should an examination of the board's compliance with section 28 ever be required. The next three clauses all deal with criminal proceedings. The first of those provisions, at clause 24, amends existing legislation relating to conspiracy to commit offences outside Northern Ireland. The amendment corrects an error in the previous provisions to provide that the consent of the Advocate General for Northern Ireland is required when instituting criminal proceedings in Northern Ireland, as intended.

Clause 25 amends section 7 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 to provide that a judge can enter a no bill on a charge such as murder or manslaughter only if the judge also enters a no bill on the related charge under section 5 of the same Act, which relates to causing or allowing a child or vulnerable adult to die. The provision closes a gap in the law that, if not addressed, could see defendants not having to face criminal proceedings in relation to that charge even where the judge is not satisfied that the related section 5 offence — the lesser offence — should also be no-billed. The final provision in this section is clause 25, which deals with registered intermediaries. Registered intermediaries are communication specialists who assist vulnerable persons with communication difficulties to give evidence during the police investigation and in court. The extension of powers in the use of registered intermediaries will ensure that there is provision not only for the giving of evidence at Magistrates' Court and Crown Court, which is currently provided for in the Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1999, but where there is an appeal from those court tiers to the County Court or the Court of Appeal. That will provide vulnerable defendants who have communication difficulties with the assistance that they need to participate effectively in appeal proceedings as witnesses giving oral evidence in court. Clauses 28 and 27 deal with legal aid matters. Clause 27 is a technical amendment to schedule 11 to the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 to include legal aid legislation. Schedule 11 allows for the registration of statutory charges in the statutory charge register. Also, the proposed amendment would allow the Legal Services Agency, which administers legal aid in Northern Ireland, to register such charges, created by the legal aid legislation, in the statutory charges register. The purpose of the statutory charge is to ensure that legally aided persons contribute towards the cost of funding their cases insofar as they are able. It provides the Legal Services Agency with revenue that it is allowed to keep and use for the funding of future cases. The person who receives legal aid, known as the assisted person, can become liable for the statutory charge should they gain money or property that they did not own before or keep money or property that someone had tried to take from them. Clause 28 is an amendment to the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978 to reinforce that, where a basis for determination of payment for legal aid work has been set out in a remuneration order made under the Access to Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2003, the taxation process is not available as an alternative basis for that determination. The amendment will allow for the reform of taxation of legal aid costs, the basic principle being that, if the Department is paying, the Department determines the amount. The penultimate provisions, at clause 29, are concerned with criminal record certificates and the disclosure of spent convictions or other disposal information of a person aged under 18. The provisions of clause 29 extend the powers of the independent reviewer of criminal record certificates under schedule 8A to the Police Act 1997. They extend the scope of automatic review by the independent reviewer to review the criminal record information to be disclosed on all criminal record certificates or enhanced criminal record certificates issued under the 1997 Act where that information relates to any other disposal awarded to a person when they were under 18 years of age. The provisions are required to comply with a ruling made by the UK Supreme Court in January 2019, which determined that blanket disclosure of such offences was a category error and, as such, an error of principle. Clause 29 therefore ensures that the Department continues to operate lawfully in that regard. Finally, on the provisions of the Bill as drafted for introduction, clause 30 ensures that the exercise of court security officer powers may be extended to other buildings to be specified in regulations. Those must be buildings owned or occupied by the Department where a judicial officer or person exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions sits. The provisions will ensure that those premises are afforded the same security as premises that make up the main courts and tribunals estate. That concludes my remarks covering the substantive policy content of the Bill at introduction. However, with your indulgence, Mr Speaker, I want to take the opportunity to provide Members with a short overview of a number of discrete policy areas where I intend to bring forward legislative provisions for inclusion in the Bill, albeit drafting could not be completed before introduction. The provisions include the following: first, provisions to transfer the powers and functions contained in section 43 of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 from the Secretary of State to the Department of Justice in order to restart the accreditation process for organisations wishing to deliver restorative justice. The second area covers provisions to amend rehabilitation periods under the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 to shorten existing rehabilitation periods for convictions that are already capable of becoming spent and to allow more convictions to be able to become spent. It had been hoped that that could be done by regulation. However, that has not been possible, which is why the drafting of primary legislation is under way. There will be provisions to facilitate the wider use of live links in courts and tribunals, thereby allowing the cessation of reliance on similar provisions that are in the Coronavirus Act 2020, which, I think, all Members would welcome. Next are provisions to repeal old and outdated vagrancy legislation under the Vagrancy Act 1824 and the Vagrancy (Ireland) Act 1847. Next are provisions to streamline arrangements for the maintenance and ease of understanding of the existing list of over 1,200 sexual and violent offences that AccessNI cannot filter from disclosure certificates. Those offences are housed in a number of different pieces of legislation. That is incredibly complex and, we believe, open to particular error. We are therefore keen to streamline those arrangements for transparency and clarity reasons. Finally, we hope to introduce provisions to tackle those who participate in or direct serious organised crime. Those are long-overdue provisions that the Independent Reporting Commission recommended to assist the PSNI and the criminal justice system in responding to organised crime. My commitment to the Justice Committee is that we will share draft amendments with it at the earliest possible juncture, rather than wait until Consideration Stage. Given the shortened mandate and the discrete nature of the provisions in the different sections of the Bill, proceeding with introduction at this time, as I described, affords the Committee and the House the maximum opportunity for scrutiny without jeopardising progress and the rest of the legislative programme for the mandate. The Bill, though very technical and dry, will strengthen and improve the operation of our justice system. I am conscious that my first Bill of the mandate is significant in scope and covers a broad range of policy areas, some of which are complex and technical but all of which make an important contribution to the modernisation of justice. In practice, there is a degree of interaction between the aims and provisions of the Bill that will often advance more than one of its core aims. I look forward to working with the Justice Committee and Assembly colleagues to ensure that the Bill is enacted in this mandate. I commend the Bill to the House.

I thank the Committee Chair for giving way. Will she accept that the provisions of the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act were in the Bill as introduced? The relationship between that Act and an amendment is irrelevant.

2,707 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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