Naomi Long

Ms Long is planning to introduce legislation to make it an offence for a person to engage in a course of abusive behaviour (on two or more occasions) against someone who they are personally connected to.

Responding to a written Stormont question, she said she is “keen that the new domestic offence is in place as soon as possible”.

She intends to bring the bill to the Northern Ireland Executive for approval “shortly” and hopes MLAs “will work with me to secure early legislative passage”.

On the timescale for bringing the law into effect, she said: “My officials continue to have discussions with operational and voluntary sector partners in relation to operationalisation of the new offence, as well as colleagues elsewhere to identify lessons learned.

“The advice from other local jurisdictions has been that a nine to 12 month period is needed to train staff across the justice system, as well as other interested parties. Awareness raising and training will be critical to the success of the new offence, so that it is used as effectively as possible.

“My Department, along with our statutory and voluntary sector partners, will do all that we can to ensure that the introductory timeframe is kept to the minimum needed. Should a shorter timeframe be possible we will of course facilitate this.”