MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands to begin Criminal Law review and amendments

Following on the Executive Council recommendations, the Legislative Assembly is due to begin considering the review this month

As part of the Government’s commitment to regularly review and update the criminal law Executive Council has approved policy recommendations and draft legislation which will make a number of changes to the Crimes Ordinance 2014 and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Ordinance 2014.

The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill 2024 will be published in the Gazette and is due to be considered by the Legislative Assembly in April 2024. The topics covered by Bill include:

(a) domestic abuse protection;

(b) hate crime and hate speech laws;

(c) offences involving weapons;

(d) online and intimate image offending;

(e) penalty notices for road traffic offences;

(f) protections in relation to sexual offences and sex-based harassment in public;

(g) protections for vulnerable adults and children; and

(h) youth sentencing.

Public information documents explaining the main topics covered by the Bill are available online, here.

Executive Council paper 34/24 ‘Criminal Law Review – Amendments and Revision 2023/2024’ sets out the recommendations made as a result of the criminal law review together with the supporting analysis. This paper will be made publicly available and when published it can be accessed online at: https://assembly.fig.gov.fk/