The official version of this document can be found via the PDF button.
The below content has been automatically generated from the original PDF and some formatting may have been lost, therefore it should not be relied upon to extract citations or propose amendments.
24
WQ.326/2019
WRITTEN QUESTION TO H.M. ATTORNEY GENERAL BY DEPUTY K.G. PAMPLIN OF ST. SAVIOUR
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 16th JULY 2019
Question
Will H.M. Attorney General commit to undertaking a comparison of current Jersey legislation relating to sexual assaults on children with the relevant recommendations of the 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia, in order to identify improvements to Jersey legislation which could be considered by the Assembly?
Answer
The Commonwealth of Australia Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse contained 114 pages of Final Recommendations. Those that relate to criminal justice start at page 91 and themselves contain 85 recommendations.
Members will appreciate that the Law Officers' Department has a number of substantial demands on its resources. In most instances it would not therefore be practicable, or necessarily desirable to divert resource to give the sort of commitment sought.
However, in this instance and having given initial consideration to the Final Recommendations of the Royal Commission, it may be beneficial to give further consideration to the recommendations that are particularly relevant to the criminal justice system at page 91. Some of these recommendations have already been implemented in Jersey through legislation enacted in 2018, but there may be some benefit in carrying out a comparison of current Jersey legislation with the relevant recommendations to see if further legislation is necessary.
Accordingly, the Attorney General will consider these recommendations, in consultation with the States of Jersey Police and the Minister of Home Affairs, and set out any relevant recommendations or observations resulting from this exercise, with the aim of doing so by the end of September 2019.