Debate contribution: Adult Protection Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mrs Diane Dodds on 30 June 2025.

MLA

Mrs Diane Dodds

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

30 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Adult Protection Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5043544

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I, like others in the House, welcome the Second Stage of the Bill. Minister, in your concluding remarks, you said that we should never hesitate to protect the most vulnerable. We all agree with your sentiment. However, it is a pity that it has been such a long time coming; that the Bill is only now starting to address the gaps between here and the rest of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland; and that it has taken the harrowing circumstances of Muckamore and Dunmurry Manor to bring the issue into the public domain. Many people, particularly the families, await the outcome of the public inquiry with trepidation. As others have said, the Bill has come about through the independent report and other reports on the deficits in Northern Ireland legislation. In essence, it will bring us into line with the rest of the United Kingdom. The seven key principles, which others have outlined, all seem sensible and important. Importantly, the Bill places a duty on organisations to report, make enquiries and cooperate. Given the issues at Muckamore, there will be a duty on HSC trusts to follow up in all cases where it is brought to their attention that someone is suspected of being an adult at risk. We, as a Health Committee, met families who are going through the serious adverse incident (SAI) process. The way that that process is drawn out by health trust officials is, at times, scandalous. The search for information is very stressful for families who have been so deeply affected. All those things are important and will be welcome. I hope that we can work with the Bill, and with the Minister and the Department, to strengthen those important areas. The duty to report and cooperate would place a duty on several bodies and establishments to report to the relevant HSC trusts in cases where, they believe, there is reasonable cause to suspect that an adult meets the criteria of an adult at risk. Again, that is very important. I will back up Colin McGrath's comment: if there is a duty to report, there must be protection for those who are doing the reporting and whistle-blowing. There have been significant conversations in the media recently about whistle-blowers and the impact on them personally and on their career prospects. We need to know that the duty to report comes with safeguards for those who are doing the reporting out of goodwill and concern for the people who are at risk. I will be interested in seeing how those elements of the Bill will intersect with any duty of candour. It is really important that we have synergy in that regard. The adult protection board will have the power to conduct serious case reviews. I believe firmly that accountability and independence will be key to that board. I hope that we will see that safeguarded and strengthened in the legislation. The Bill creates offences around ill treatment and wilful neglect, and, of course, we will all scrutinise the use of CCTV.

That is all welcome, Minister. We look forward to looking at the Bill clause by clause and helping the Department to get the balance right for the future. Like others in the House, however, I am concerned that the business case has been approved by the Department of Finance only on the basis that the legislation will not be enacted until such times as funds become available. In essence, that means that implementation could be delayed. That would be very disappointing for the families whose loved ones have suffered the horrors of Muckamore and Dunmurry Manor. We will want to look further at the costs of the Bill. The Health Committee received a paper estimating those costs to be £12 million a year over the next decade. Without extra funding, it may be the case that the Act would simply sit unimplemented. It would be like the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, much of which still has not been implemented. The feeling of the House is that it is too important not to be implemented. We would like your assurance, Minister, that you will seek extra funding for that implementation. We will give you our support for that. That is hugely important. I just want to check that the costs of the Bill are accurate, because, in autumn 2021, I was led to believe that the Bill's estimated start-up costs were over £800,000, with £821,000 annually for implementation. That is a significant divergence from the costs in your current estimates. Can you shed any light on how those costs have risen so dramatically to £12 million a year and how we can scrutinise that part of the Bill? Minister, in the DUP's 2022 Assembly manifesto, my party promised to support new adult safeguarding legislation. We will stand over that promise. As I have said, I have concerns about the overall funding for the legislation. I hope that it can be brought through the House in a timely manner and that you and your officials will listen and respond to the concerns — not just the concerns but the praise, I have to say — that have been levelled at the Bill in the debate. One of the reasons why we need the Bill is the fact that is difficult for families to get information about their loved ones, if they are concerned about how those loved ones are being dealt with by health and social care trusts. A number of us will have received an email from a family who were deeply involved in the Muckamore Abbey Hospital scandal and have been trying, over a period of probably two years, to get information from the Belfast Trust on adverse incidents that relate to their son. I would like you to give us some assurance — I will forward the correspondence to you — that the matter will be dealt with, not post the legislation but now. It is an extremely stressful situation. Some of the emails that the family sent were not acknowledged, and others have been kind of thrown into the long grass, for want of a better phrase. I would like you to place in the Assembly Library information on the arrangements that are made for releasing information on adverse incidents and, indeed, serious adverse incidents and on the circumstances in which that information is released, because to keep families in continuous suspense and having to fight continually on that issue is just wrong. I know that the Minister will give that matter his attention, because it is deeply disturbing. I thank the Minister for the introduction of the Bill's Second Stage. This is a good step forward, and I look forward to the scrutiny of the Bill.

1,129 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification