AQO 2368/22-27
Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim
Tabled Date: 04/09/2025
Answered On Date: 16/09/2025
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on the implementation of the recommendations in the Gillen Review Report into the law and procedures in serious sexual offences in Northern Ireland.
Answer:
ORAL QUESTION No 13 - AQO 2368/22-27 ANSWER I am pleased to report that 174, or 69%, of the original 253 Gillen Review recommendations are now complete with a further 25 (10%) partially complete. However, I believe that focus on these numbers alone, does not convey the true scale of change in terms of outcomes for victims. I have prioritised recommendations that deliver meaningful improvements for victims of sexual crime; including: access to free legal advice for all victims of serious sexual offences, through the SOLA and Children’s SOLA schemes; access to Remote Evidence Centres, where victims can give their best evidence from a secure and comfortable facility away from the court building – I am encouraged that the conviction rate for REC cases currently stands at over 90%; measures to reduce delay, including committal reform, which means that victims are no longer required to give oral evidence at the committal hearing; delivery of the Under 13 protocol which is significantly reducing the time taken to deal with cases involving young victims; launch of PSNI led Power to Change campaign in January, which tackles the behaviours and attitudes that fuel sexual offending and gender-based violence, including violence against women and girls. There have been significant improvements to Disclosure and ABE procedures; better training to enable front-line staff to adopt a trauma-informed approach with victims and new legislation to exclude the public from court in serious sexual offence trials. My department is also progressing work on new legislation to clarify the right of complainants in serious sexual offence cases to third party representation during pre-trial applications and to enhance the protection of complainants’ personal information in the third-party material disclosure process. Wider work is also well advanced and in coming months I plan to: Publish research findings in relation to the extent and reasons for attrition in serious sexual offences and the use of previous sexual history in trials; launch a social media campaign to challenge rape myths; publish guidance for the media in relation to the reporting of sexual crime; and, consider options for a Barnahus-informed facility in Northern Ireland.
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