Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Justice – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:15 pm on 17 June 2024.
The work that the commissioner designate has done is hugely important. As Members will be aware, when we appointed a commissioner, the idea was that that person would lead on areas such as hate crime and domestic violence and abuse. Her work on that has been extremely strong; she has not only challenged the legislation, the victims' charter and those areas but has looked at the flow from domestic abuse cases into the family courts and challenged for the reform of the family courts system. That has been incredibly helpful, particularly to those victims, with whom we have all engaged, who find that the family courts system can sometimes be abused by former partners who try to coerce and control their partner, post break-up. The commissioner designate's voice and independence on that are hugely important. The challenge function that she can provide at the moment is powerful, but, given a statutory footing, I believe that she will be able to do much more.