To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on her plans to introduce an offence of controlling or coercive behaviour.

The Domestic Abuse and Family Proceedings Bill received Executive approval on 16 March.

While I had previously indicated that the Bill would be introduced in April or May work took place at an accelerated pace to allow the Bill to be introduced on Tuesday 31 March. This is a significant step forward in our efforts to criminalise patterns of psychological and emotionally harmful behaviour through the creation of a domestic abuse offence.

While I have indicated to the Assembly that Royal Assent may be secured around April/May 2021, with the goodwill of the Committee in considering the Bill expediently, I would hope to be in a position to secure Royal Assent before this.

My officials continue to have discussions with operational and voluntary sector partners in relation to operationalisation of the new offence, as well as colleagues elsewhere to identify lessons learned. The advice from other local jurisdictions has been that a 9-12 month period is needed, however, my Department, along with our statutory and voluntary sector partners, will do all that we can to ensure that the introductory timeframe is kept to the minimum needed.