Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Bill - Committee Stage
Call for Evidence
The Committee for Justice would like to hear your views on the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Bill, which includes:
- Provisions arising from the Gillen Review of serious sexual offence cases to exclude the public from all serious sexual offence hearings and to introduce anonymity for defendants' pre-charge
- Provisions to give effect to the outcome of a review of the law on child sexual exploitation and sexual offences against children to include live streamed images in the definition of exploitation for sexual purposes and to create a new offence of adults masquerading as children online
- Provisions to create a new offence of up-skirting and down blousing alongside a number of other sex offence adjustments to ensure the law operates as intended in these areas
- Provisions to adjust the modern slavery strategy and improve services for potential victims of slavery and exploitation
The Department has also advised the Committee of four planned amendments to the Bill that the Minister is currently developing and the Committee would also welcome views on these. The proposed amendments cover the following:
- A legislative fix to re-instate four offences incorrectly removed into Schedule 2 of the Magistrates' Courts Order 1981 to allow for the summary prosecution of these indictable offences under Article 45 of that Order
- Abolition of the rough sex defence
- An extension to existing revenge porn provisions to include a threat of publication
- Provisions to widen the scope and strength of the current law on abuse of trust
Additional Reading:
- Read information provided by the Department of Justice on the provisions of the Bill and proposed amendments (PDF, 3 pages, 255kb)
- Read information provided by the NSPCC to the Committee on the ‘Close the Loophole Campaign’ to extend the scope of the Abuse of Trust legislation to beyond statutory settings and the position and recent developments in other jurisdictions (PDF, 13 pages, 3.7 MB)
- Read the Summary of Responses and Proposed Way Forward produced by the Department of Justice following the consultation on ‘Consent to Serious Harm for Sexual Gratification: Not a Defence’ (External link, PDF, 12 pages, 291kb)
How to submit your views:
Written submissions should be sent in word format and preferably by email to JusticeSexualOffencesandTraffickingVictimsBill@niassembly.gov.uk or, by post, to The Committee Clerk, Room 242, Parliament Buildings, Ballymiscaw, Stormont, Belfast, BT4 3XX.
Your written submission should be structured to address specific clauses of the Bill or the proposed amendments. If appropriate, it should include any amendments you wish to propose to the text of the Bill.
- Read the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Bill
- Read the accompanying Explanatory and Financial Memorandum
The closing date for written submissions is Friday 24 September 2021.
Organisations or individuals responding to this call for evidence should note that their written submission (either in whole or part) may be published on the Committee webpage and may be quoted in the Committee’s report or referred to in Committee meetings (which are public and broadcast).
The Committee recognises that in some circumstances people may prefer for their evidence to be treated as confidential, or published anonymously. If you wish to do this, please make this clear when submitting your evidence.
Before sending us your views please read our Privacy Notice. This tells you how we process your personal data.
If you have any queries or require any further information about the call for evidence or the Bill please contact the Committee Clerk by email at JusticeSexualOffencesandTraffickingVictimsBill@niassembly.gov.uk or by phone at 028 9052 1629.
