Letter: Parliament - not the Northern Ireland Assembly - legislates for terrorism and related sentences across the UK
A letter from Lisa Smyth, of the Department of Justice:
Your article ‘Terror offences not among those being increased by Naomi Long's new bill - leading to questions from the DUP’ (March 5) does a disservice to your readers by implying that it is within the gift of any devolved Northern Ireland department to bring forward legislation on matters that are the exclusive responsibility of the UK Parliament.
While legislation on sentencing for offences within the devolved remit is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Assembly, it is for Parliament to legislate for terrorism and related sentences across the UK.
This has always been the case under the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
Where someone is tried and convicted of terrorism offences in Northern Ireland courts, the sentencing will be done on the basis of the UK-wide legislation passed by Parliament.
Indeed, if the Department of Justice had attempted to legislate for terror offences, it would rightly have been ruled outside of the NI Assembly’s legislative competence.
That would have further delayed the many positive aspects of the Sentencing Bill, including more protections for public workers, increased sentences for very serious driving offences, and Charlotte’s Law.
Lisa Smyth, Acting principal information officer, Department of Justice