To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on the Victims and Witnesses of Crime Bill.

Mrs Long

The Bill is focused on a small number of very significant measures that will have the most impact on victims and witnesses of crime in order to improve their experience of the criminal justice system. That is a priority for me and something that, I know, partner organisations are also keen to progress. The provisions, which will make a real difference to victims, include a right of victims in serious sexual offence cases to make representations at specified pretrial application hearings, with the benefit of independent legal representation to do so, and improvements to the third-party material disclosure process. Victims of hate crime offences will automatically be eligible for special measures, and the accused will be prohibited from cross-examining them. Officials are working with the Office of the Legislative Counsel (OLC) to support the drafting of the Bill, which I plan to introduce before the summer recess, subject, of course, to Executive and Assembly approval.

Mrs Long

I thank the Member for raising the issue. I recognise how distressing it is for victims to listen to good-character references for a perpetrator who has harmed them and to feel that those references could influence the outcome of the trial or of sentencing, given that character references can play a part in both. My preference would be to end or to limit the use of good-character references in certain categories of offending, particularly domestic abuse and sexual crime. Legally complex issues are involved, so careful policy development and consultation are required to ensure that any resultant legislation is compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including the article 6 rights of the defendant. I have therefore made the issue part of the Department's review of sentencing policy with a view to legislating in the next mandate. However, if a simple legislative change that could have an impact in this space were to be identified, I would not rule out using the victims and witnesses of crime Bill as a potential vehicle for it. Above all, I encourage everyone to exercise personal responsibility when it comes to providing character references for use by a court, particularly in cases of domestic abuse and sexual offending, where the creation of a good character in the public eye is often part of the offending profile.

Ms Ferguson

Minister, you will be aware that, from January 2021 to December 2025, 175 road traffic collisions involving e-scooters, e-bikes and scramblers resulted in 200 injuries, 51 of which were serious, and, sadly, three fatalities. Given that the Justice Department has legislative responsibility for PSNI enforcement powers, such as the power to seize vehicles that are being driven recklessly, does the Minister intend to amend a current Bill or include provision in a forthcoming Bill to ensure that such vehicles can be taken from perpetrators and destroyed —

Mr Speaker

OK.

Ms Ferguson

— before the number of fatalities increases?

Mr Speaker

I am not sure about the relevance of that to the question. Minister, I leave it in your hands.

Mrs Long

It does not play into the victims and witnesses of crime Bill. When it comes to the wider legislative programme, however, we are still bottoming out the issue. I have invited the Chief Constable and the Infrastructure Minister to a meeting so that we can determine whether there are gaps in legislation, because it remains unclear to me that there are such gaps. For example, it is already illegal for someone to be in control of a vehicle if they are underage; it is illegal to ride that vehicle on the pavement; and it is illegal to ride it without insurance, MOT certificate and other safeguards. Those are matters of enforcement, and there are complexities around that. Indeed, as some Members will have seen today, innovative work is being done by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) on technology that can force the electric motors of e-bikes to switch off so that the police can seize the bikes. I will have the meeting to look at whether there are gaps, and, if there are, we will be happy to close them. As with everything else, there is limited time left in the mandate, and we cannot simply legislate willy-nilly without going through the due process of consultation and other things. I am convinced that an area of this falls to parental responsibility. Many of the young people who drive the scooters are under 13 or 14 years old, and they certainly do not buy them out of their pocket money, so some adult responsibility has to be taken for their conduct.

Mr O'Toole

Victims and witnesses of crime want their trials to happen. At the minute, lots of trials cannot happen because of the strike. Weeks ago, you received the independent accelerated review, which you talked up, but you do not seem to have taken action to finally bring the strike to an end.

When will it be possible to assure victims and witnesses of crime that their trials can go forward? At the minute, it seems like a crisis that you cannot or will not solve.

Mrs Long

The Member has, as always, started from the position of assuming that I am in the wrong. It is always helpful for me to have the opportunity to correct that notion. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing to stop the criminal Bar coming back to work at any time. That is the first thing. The criminal Bar remaining outside will not influence the outcome of the accelerated review or the outcome of my deliberations on the report of that review. The report arrived with me on 24 or 27 April — I will check the date — and is now with my officials, so that they can provide advice. I anticipate getting that advice in the next few days and will make quick decisions on a way forward. I will meet the Bar, as my officials have, and the solicitors' criminal Bar. The accelerated review came up with proposals, but I cannot guarantee that, if I were to implement those proposals in full, they would be acceptable to the solicitors' criminal Bar or to the criminal Bar. Previous demands that they made were met in full, and that did not result in a return to work; in fact, it resulted in an escalation of the action. Only the criminal Bar can control whether or not it returns to court. I urge it to do so, because the Member is, of course, absolutely correct on the fundamental point about the impact on victims and witnesses.