Debate contribution: Justice Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 1 October 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

1 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Justice Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4563099

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The Minister makes some reasonable points, but the simple fact is this: the question of whether the Committee or every MLA did their job properly, given that the Bill, which is now an Act, passed by acclamation — there was not even a Division — only adds to the argument that we should do our job in this case even more assiduously and carefully and scrutinise the text of the amendments, which we should see as early as possible. That is why legitimate concern has been raised around that. Policy intent and the way that it interacts with the Bill text is always an argument that is made in court, and, obviously, it was subject to some discussion in that case.

I will give way in a second. There has to be some draft legislation. You have to see the text of an amendment or a clause. It would be difficult for a judge to surmise that a piece of policy intent was properly considered in relation to the Bill text until there is Bill text. I give way.

My constituency colleague has robustly clarified her position. I do not think that I put words in her mouth. I think it was relatively clear because I took a note of what she said. We are —

I have been talking about civil law and the importance of civil law and criminal law, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have not been in any way uncivil, and I would not seek to be uncivil. There is lots of important stuff in the Bill, and I commend the Justice Minister for bringing — frankly, unlike other members of the Executive so far — a piece of significant legislation. However, we have a precedent to go back to, that other vexed word that has a legal meaning too. There is a precedent, which is that, in the previous mandate, we passed legislation that had a significant unintended consequence. Perhaps it was not an unintended consequence; perhaps it was intended, but it was not fully understood and thought through by the Members of the Assembly. We should be humble about that and should be serious about our jobs. I have also been made aware of another outstanding issue in relation to that legislation about which I will correspond with the Minister and ask her to clarify. It is about the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act 2022. All it does is reinforce the need for us to scrutinise this Bill properly, and I hope that what emerges will be a significant piece of justice reform that will be to the credit of the Minister. I know that sometimes the Minister enjoys robust exchanges in the Chamber; perhaps she does not always enjoy them. However, there is an important point here. This is about challenge — sometimes it is about difficult exchange — to get to a place that is better. It will be better and substantial legislation that actually works, if we do our jobs properly and scrutinise it. Clearly, we will support the passage of the Bill at Second Stage. We look forward to the text of the amendments and to scrutinising the important subjects contained therein.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:23 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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