To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on her legislative programme for the remainder of the 2022-2027 mandate.

Mrs Long

As you will be aware, it was not possible to introduce any legislation or progress key policy decisions in the absence of Ministers, the Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly during a significant portion of the early part of this mandate. I therefore had to review and re-prioritise my previous, more ambitious legislative plans on my return as Minister of Justice at the beginning of last year. My revised legislative programme now includes plans to bring forward three Assembly Bills, which equates to one per annum, during the time remaining in this significantly shortened mandate. They are a mixed-content Justice Bill, which was introduced to the Assembly on Tuesday 17 September 2024; a sentencing Bill, which is planned for introduction by autumn 2025; and a victims and witnesses of crime Bill, which is planned for introduction by March 2026.

Mrs Long

We are looking at a range of issues in relation to the victims and witnesses Bill, including, first, the potential to include some of the recommendations in Judge Marrinan's report around support for victims of hate crime and special measures in the courts. We also intend to bring forward additional measures to complete some of the legislative requirements of elements of the Gillen review that, we agreed, were necessary, and to put the Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime on a statutory footing. We are looking at a number of other issues, but it is the third Justice Bill in the mandate, so there is ongoing development in what we intend to include in it. It is important that those issues are advanced during the mandate and that we have the opportunity to look at, for example, legislation around a disclosure regime, protection for complainants and restriction of access to third-party material, particularly when it comes to things such as counselling records, about which I know many Members are concerned.

Mr O'Toole

Minister, I commend you for introducing legislation in 2024. Many Ministers could learn from that. I also appreciate your being in the Chamber. You are clearly suffering from a cold, so fair play for being here and answering questions. In light of the seriousness of the hate crime situation that we face, given what we saw on the streets of Belfast last summer, will you revisit your plan not to introduce stand-alone hate crime legislation, which was a commitment in your party's manifesto, and seek to introduce a Bill in this mandate that properly tackles hate crime? I appreciate that you will say that that will be part of another Bill, but will you revisit your plan not to introduce stand-alone hate crime measures?

Mrs Long

I have no intention of revisiting that plan. I considered the issue carefully before opting for the course of action that I took. Had I decided to not decouple the elements of the hate crime Bill from each other and to proceed with them as I have, at pace, I would not be in a position to make any progress on hate crime in the mandate, because it would have been the fourth Justice Bill of the mandate and would have fallen off the end of the time frame. If I were to revisit the hate crime Bill now, I would not have sufficient time, first, for legislative counsel to advance it, and for the policy development work that would need to take place in my Department before the end of the mandate. Effectively, I would be slowing down progress on tackling hate crime rather than speeding it up. I have opted to accelerate it, albeit it means that there will not be stand-alone legislation. To be clear, there is no difference between legislative provisions being in a stand-alone Bill and their being included in other vehicles. When they are in legislation, they are the law.