Deputy Helen McEntee:

Section 14 of the Bill, as initiated, seeks to legislate for a form of pre-action discovery order known as the Norwich Pharmacal order, which also extends jurisdiction to make orders to the Circuit Court. Concerns have been raised about this section which could have broader implications than what is simply being criminalised in the Bill. The existing section 14 includes communications that are "abusive, threatening, offensive, false, defamatory or an invasion of another person's privacy". This could potentially include communications that fall outside of the scope of the Bill itself. We have consulted on this section and the general consensus is that it is not appropriate for inclusion in the Bill for the reasons I have outlined.