Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): The legislative consent memorandum (LCM) relates to the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill. It has been formally laid in the Business Office.

The Department is proposing to extend the provisions of the Bill to Northern Ireland by way of an LCM. Members will recall from previous consideration of this matter that private law principles and associated rights that relate to personal property traditionally divide into two categories: things in possession and things in action. The Bill seeks to give recognition and protection to new types of assets such as cryptocurrency. This third category of personal property will allow courts to develop common law with a focus on the characteristics of things within that third category and the legal treatment that should be afforded to them.

The then Finance Minister, Dr Archibald, wrote to the Committee indicating that she was agreeable to extending the Bill to Northern Ireland by LCM, given the legislative constraints and current Assembly mandate schedule. The Minister also indicated that the Department would be carrying out a short engagement exercise with local stakeholders. Following receipt of a written briefing, which addressed various queries, the Committee held an oral evidence session with officials on 20 November. The Committee also wrote to the Financial Conduct Authority to explore the extent of cryptocurrency holdings in Northern Ireland. We established that they are surprisingly high; maybe we can factor that into our financial services inquiry. Since that time, the Department has forwarded the Committee two responses from its consultation, both welcoming the LCM. One is from the Law Society and the other from the Federation of Small Businesses.

I ask members whether they have any comment to make. If members are content, I will move on.

Is the Committee content to seek the Assembly's endorsement of the legislative consent motion:

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): To return to a favourite topic of mine, we may at some point wish to ask officials, again, whether they think that this is the type of thing that should be dealt with by the Justice Department. This is not coming to us because it is a financial matter: it is coming to us because it is to do with a matter of civil law. Frankly, I think that the Department of Finance has enough to be doing, as we have been discussing today. We have very able officials dealing with matters of civil law, which are properly, in most other jurisdictions on these islands and elsewhere, a matter for Justice Departments.

There is a draft report that covers the Committee's deliberations. Any typographical or formatting errors in the report will be amended at final proofing stage. If members have amendments to the draft report, now or subsequently, they can send them to the clerical staff. I will proceed through the report, because we have to provide a formal agreement to it.

Are members content that the title page and sections covering "Powers and Membership", "Contents" and list of abbreviations stand part of the report?

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): Are members content that the "Background" section, paragraphs 1 to 8, stand part of the report?

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): Are members content that the "Purpose of the Legislative Consent Motion" section, paragraph 9, stand part of the report?

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): Are members content that the "Committee Consideration of the Legislative Consent Motion" section, paragraphs 10 to 36, stand part of the report?

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): Are members content that the "Conclusion" section, paragraph 37, stand part of the report?

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): The appendices will be updated in due course with Hansard transcripts from the discussion and deliberations that we are now having. Are members content that the appendices stand part of the report?

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): Now that that is agreed, are members content that the report be published on the Committee's web page and a link issued to all MLAs in advance of the debate on the LCM, for which we do not yet have an indicative date? It will not be too far away.

The Committee Clerk: We have a set of timescales, Chair, from which we are working. The Department was aware that we were going to seek Committee approval today. The Department can work out its timescales now that we have that approval. It cannot table the motion less than five working days after Committee agreement, so it will not be in the next Order Paper, but it can potentially be in the one after that.

The Chairperson (Mr O'Toole): Great. We have done that.