Ms Rosemary Hennigan:

The Minister indicated when he spoke to the committee that it was his view that a statutory instrument would be sufficient. We have to accept that, although we have not seen it, and I would not want to second guess him. At the same time, however, there are substantial areas left to the member states to determine. There is a lot of discretion. There are also things the member state has to do, including the vulnerability assessment. It is difficult for us to imagine how that can be sufficiently catered for under a statutory instrument, although it may well be. We are looking at it from the point of view that these are victims of torture, rape, all kinds of situations and medical conditions, which make them very vulnerable. The ability to properly assess that and to provide the necessary care is a big task. That is why we are in part asking this committee to consider how implementation will be conducted and whether there is scope for ongoing review and monitoring of implementation.

It may be that the statutory instrument transposing the directive will say something along the lines of a vulnerability assessment will be conducted but what that actually looks like is where it really matters. In practice health screening is one thing but there is a range of other concerns to be considered and, as Mr. Henderson pointed out, it will be cross-departmental. It may be that further legislation is required for those issues or that it can be done other than by legislation. At the moment, unfortunately, we are not sure how it is intended to do it.