Debate contribution: Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Doug Beattie MC on 16 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Doug Beattie MC

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

16 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5448477

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the Bill and thank the Minister for introducing it. The Minister was very clear and concise when she outlined the Bill's purpose, and I agree an awful lot with the Committee Chair's words on what he saw as some of the issues with the Bill. It is incumbent on us all now to work together on the Bill. Of course, we will be supporting it as it moves through Second Stage to Committee Stage. I do not intend to go through all of the Bill's clauses, but I will tap into a few of them with a few of my thoughts. Some aspects of the Sentencing Bill deal with issues that are very rare but have a huge impact on our society and, certainly, on victims.

Many have mentioned Part 5, failure to disclose information about a victim's remains. That is a heinous thing to do and really does have an impact. It is quite simple: if you fail to disclose the whereabouts of your victim's remains having been found guilty, time will be added to your sentence. At the minute, the mathematics and discretion falls to the judge, but that can be no less than 30% of the sentence. In simple terms, if you get 15 years, you could be looking at a sentence being extended to 20 years. That is the simple maths. The other thing that you then need to look at is this: if you have made an early guilty plea, does 33% get taken off? Having been given 15 years, you take 33% off that before you add the 30% aggravated. That is something that we will need to look at. It is that type of complication in sentencing in general that concerns me. Many people have lost confidence in our justice system and sentencing because it seems to many to be unfair, inconsistent, overly complicated and not transparent and not to match the stated purpose and principles of sentencing, which we have, for the first time, laid out in the Bill in Part 1, namely proportionality, fairness and transparency. The use of punishment sparingly is going to be difficult for victims to hear. When we use the term "use punishment sparingly", that needs to be explained to them. The stated purposes of sentencing are punishment, protection of the public, deterrence, rehabilitation and reparation. I have raised it in the Chamber before, but I am still convinced that Northern Ireland requires a sentencing council in line with what is in England and Wales, the Scottish Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines and Information Committee in the Irish Republic. A sentencing council would ensure fairness, consistency and transparency. It would outline the effect of the sentence on the victim and how the sentence guidelines were followed. It is a discussion to be had; one that we need to have if we are to go forward. In passing the motion that I tabled last year, the House agreed that we should have a sentencing council, but that was just a motion that was not binding. We need to have that discussion about a sentencing council.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:11 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