Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

Debate contribution by Ms Aisling Reilly on 14 January 2025.

MLA

Ms Aisling Reilly

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

14 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4736333

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I am responding to the debate on behalf of the Minister of Justice, and I wish her well. I know that she will be back in the Chamber as soon as she can. The Minister is grateful to the leader of the Opposition for tabling the important motion that is before the House. On the DUP amendment, I can confirm that it is the Minister's intention to consult on proposals to clarify the legal definition of what constitutes "reasonable belief in consent" before the end of the current mandate. On pretrial jury education, resources are already available to assist and educate jurors, including written guidance on their legal responsibilities, on contempt of court and on the laws around their use of social media. The judiciary also provides oral directions on social media use and on rape myths. The Minister will continue to keep under review whether further actions and/or resources could enhance jury education and will consult as appropriate. The Minister wants to make it absolutely clear that all violence against women and girls is completely unacceptable, and she knows that all Members are deeply appalled by the increase in violence against women in recent months. There must be a collective effort from across society and across all Departments, not just Justice, to address the issues. That is why it is right that we in the Executive Office have lead responsibility for the delivery of the strategic framework for ending violence against women and girls. The Department of Justice has an important contribution to make, however. It is making that contribution, particularly through its work to address domestic and sexual abuse and through its delivery of the Gillen review recommendations. The domestic and sexual abuse strategy, which was launched in September 2024, sets out a range of specific actions that are intended to create lasting change and, fundamentally, to keep those who are at risk from domestic and sexual abuse, including women and girls, safer. Clearly, there is interdependence between that work and the Executive Office's strategic framework for ending violence against women and girls. The Justice Minister will ensure that her Department continues to work in partnership with TEO and other Departments to deliver positive change. For the First Minister, the deputy First Minister, junior Minister Cameron and me, ending violence against women and girls has been a day-1 priority. We are determined to work with our Executive colleagues and with the groups and organisations that already do sterling work on the ground to end the scourge of violence, harm and abuse that has an impact right across our society. The motion focuses particularly on the delivery of the Gillen review programme. That is a critical programme of change that will deliver vital measures for victims of serious sexual offences. We know that women and girls are affected disproportionately, but not exclusively, by such offences. Of course, the vision set out in the Gillen review cannot be achieved solely by the Department of Justice. The review envisaged societal change that needs a collaborative, cross-Executive response, involving Education and Health and cutting across the Executive Office's responsibility to end violence against women and girls. That collective approach and collective responsibility underpin the Executive's work to build a changed society where women and girls feel safe and are safe everywhere. Collaboration is essential for us to start to build the transformative change that is needed to achieve that aim. The Justice Minister is fully committed to the implementation of the review, and good progress has been made in partnership with others. The focus has been on progressing the recommendations that have the most beneficial impact on victims. In spite of the challenges, DOJ has introduced many measures, services and reforms that deliver real and meaningful improvements for victims of sexual crime. In practical terms, what is different now? The justice system can be disorientating and difficult to understand, so complainants in sexual offence cases are now able to access new supports, including a domestic and sexual abuse advocacy service and the sexual offences legal adviser (SOLA) scheme, that help to inform and empower complainants by providing a free legal service. The SOLA scheme has helped almost 2,000 complainants to date, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The Justice Minister plans to build on that service by establishing equivalent support for child victims — that service should launch next month — and by legislating to clarify complainants' rights to pretrial third-party legal representation. That would allow SOLAs to represent them in the courtroom in order to object to the disclosure of their private material or the introduction of their previous sexual history. Many victims say that the most stressful aspect of their criminal justice experience is standing up in a courtroom to give evidence. The Department of Justice has been working to reduce that trauma. New legislation is in place to protect victim anonymity and to exclude members of the public from the courtroom during serious sexual offence trials. In addition, remote evidence facilities have been established in Belfast and Craigavon to reduce trauma and provide a less intimidating, secure venue for giving evidence away from the courthouse. Promotion of the remote evidence centres has led to an increase of over 600% in bookings last year compared with 2023. While it is still early days, it is also noteworthy that, in the past calendar year to 1 November, the conviction rate for completed trials where the witness had opted to use one of the facilities was 92%. Almost half of those convictions were by guilty plea, without the need for the victim to give oral evidence at the trial. The use of the Belfast remote evidence centre for domestic abuse contests has proved equally successful, with, again, a conviction rate of over 90%. Under the disclosure improvement plan, the PSNI and PPS have led work to improve the operation of the disclosure process, and that is making a significant difference. Training has been delivered to prosecutors and police officers, and new file standards have been agreed. As a result, the volume of prosecution files returned to the PSNI for failing requirements dropped from an average of almost 78% in 2020 to about 11% in 2024. Further measures are planned, and the Department of Justice is consulting on legislative proposals to regulate the disclosure process and enhance protections relating to the disclosure of private information in serious sexual offence cases. Separate work through a judge-led under-13s protocol is reducing delay in cases that involve young children, which helps to reduce retraumatisation and to allow children to start their recovery journey sooner. Criminal justice organisations that are participating in the protocol have agreed to seek to expedite similar cases involving witnesses aged under 16 years across all court divisions. Wider work that is also improving the experience of child complainants includes dedicated child-friendly remote evidence centre facilities, the imminent launch of children's sexual offence legal advisers and work on improvement in achieving best evidence (ABE). ABE interview training has improved with input from registered intermediaries, child psychologists and members of the legal profession. Appropriate interview suites have also been refurbished, with children's toys or props available where required. An ABE cadre of police officers and social care staff was piloted and proved beneficial. Other measures are designed to deliver a cultural and organisational change, again to benefit victims. They include the development and roll-out of a trauma-informed training framework to enhance the understanding, skills and sensitivity of those who work with victims of sexual crime in the criminal justice system. The Department of Justice has also worked with the PSNI and the Executive Office to develop a campaign to tackle the underpinning behaviours and attitudes that can fuel sexual offending and gender-based violence. The Minister of Justice anticipates that the campaign will launch later this month. The motion specifically cites recommendations that relate to reforming the laws around the defence of reasonable belief and introducing pretrial jury education. The Minister of Justice supports the conclusion that legislative steps need to be taken to underpin the key principle of consent as defined in article 3 of the Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, which states:

"a person consents if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice."

The review made a number of recommendations as to how that might be achieved. It remains the Minister's intention to develop relevant policy and legislative proposals before the end of the current mandate. On pretrial jury education, the review specifically recommended that the judiciary should give clear directions to jurors about the use of social media during trials. While the judiciary is wholly independent, officials in the Department of Justice have engaged extensively with the Lady Chief Justice's office to work collectively on a number of the Gillen recommendations in that area. The Lady Chief Justice's office has advised that guidance on the matter is provided in the judicial bench book, which contains specimen directions for judges to give to the jury. The Lady Chief Justice has statutory responsibility for the provision of training for the independent judiciary, and judges have received specific training on the matter. It is standard practice for judges to give clear and concise direction to jurors on their legislative obligations on the first day of the trial and as required at the conclusion of each day's hearing. As previously mentioned, the Lady Chief Justice has a statutory responsibility for judicial training and, in relation to raising a jury's awareness of rape myths, the Lady Chief Justice's office has advised that judicial training on such matters is regularly delivered and refreshed. The judiciary provides oral directions about rape myths at the start of sexual offence trials. Those instructions are straightforward and cover everything required. Judges will also intervene during a trial as appropriate. Mar fhocal scoir, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle

, I reiterate my condemnation of all violence against women and girls. I reaffirm the Minister of Justice's commitment to working with Executive colleagues and other partners to end violence against women and girls and safeguard all those who are at risk from harm. Violence against women and girls is wrong and has no place in our society, and there is something that everyone can do to stop it. It can affect anyone in villages, towns and cities right across our society. My thoughts are with those who have lost their lives to this horrendous epidemic, but also with those who suffer from it every single day. We see you, we hear you, and we will work together to change our society for the better.

1,773 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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