Ms Rebecca Coen:

On Deputy Durkan's question on bullying, it is a form of emotional abuse and is not new to any of us. Recent additions to the Statute Book include the criminalisation of coercive control and so on. The concept of legislating for emotional abuse is not new. As I said, we are examining this in a holistic way and that includes consideration of where there may be gaps in criminal law. The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 was influenced in large part by the work of the Law Reform Commission. It deals with a form of modern bullying and is reflective of the kind of appropriate criminalisation of abuse that is intangible. In our examination of the law we are very conscious that we are ensuring we recognise that actions can be taken that are not necessarily violent but might nonetheless seriously interfere with another person's peace and privacy or cause alarm, distress or harm to that person.

We are identifying the omissions in family law settings, such as whether there are adequate protection in the Domestic Violence Act and who can apply for safety and protection and barring orders. There are often situations of familial abuse-----