Minutes of Proceedings
Session: 2012/2013
Date: 04 December 2012
Venue: Room 29, Parliament Buildings
Agreed: The Committee agreed to commence the meeting in closed session.
The meeting commenced at 3.05 p.m. in closed session.
1. Update by the Assembly Bill Clerk on the Scope of the Criminal Justice Bill
The Assembly Bill Clerk joined the meeting at 3.05 p.m. and provided further advice to the Committee on the scope of the Criminal Justice Bill in relation to a proposed amendment to abolish the offence of scandalising the court and answered Members’ questions.
The Chairman thanked the Assembly Bill Clerk for the briefing.
The meeting moved into public session at 3.08 p.m.
2. Apologies
Apologies are detailed above.
3. Committee Stage: Criminal Justice Bill – Issues for further consideration
3.23 p.m. Mr Tom Elliott joined the meeting.
The Committee considered a range of outstanding issues in relation to the Criminal Justice Bill including: draft departmental amendments to clause 3; an additional sex offender notification provision; issues relating to a rapporteur; making human trafficking offences triable on indictment only; human trafficking provisions that should be considered in the context of Lord Morrow’s Private Members’ Bill; how cautions, penalty notices and diversionary youth conferences are treated in relation to retention of fingerprints, DNA etc, and issues relating to the presumption of innocence and the minimum age of responsibility and the retention framework.
The Committee discussed the wording of a proposed amendment for inclusion in the Criminal Justice Bill to abolish the offence of scandalising the court and issues relating to admissibility.
Agreed: The Committee agreed the wording of the amendment to abolish the offence of scandalising the court and to write to the Speaker seeking his views on its admissibility.
3.49 p.m. Mr Stewart Dickson joined the meeting.
The session was recorded by Hansard.
4. Date and time of next meeting
The next meeting will take place on Thursday 6 December 2012 at 2.00 p.m. in Room 30, Parliament Buildings.
3.50 p.m. The meeting was adjourned.
