8. Ms Ferguson asked the Minister of Justice whether she has any plans to place the role of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime on a statutory footing. (AQO 592/22-27)

I recognise the very important contribution already being made by the Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime in giving a voice to victims and representing their needs and interests. I plan to introduce legislation before the end of the mandate to put the role of Commissioner for Victims of Crime on a statutory footing.

I put on record my thanks to Skeoge community hub and the ladies and gentlemen from Skeoge in Derry who have come along today to find out more about the work of MLAs in the Assembly.

Minister, what steps have you taken to ensure that the role of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime is fully functioning before it is put on a statutory footing?

The commissioner designate and her office continue to represent the needs, rights and interests of all victims of crime. I am very grateful for the engagement that the commissioner designate and her team have taken forward with victims and their families and for her identification of priority areas for change. Not only has she been instrumental in amplifying the voices of victims of crimes to promote better service delivery and compliance with the victims' charter, she has been critical to the driving up of the protection of victims' data and privacy. In the next number of weeks, I hope that she will join us at the Criminal Justice Board on a trial basis, so that she will have a seat at the table as we make decisions about crucial issues such as speeding up justice.

What is the Minister's assessment of the impact of the work of the commissioner designate, so far?

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.