Gov’t breaks up Evidence Act

Monique Grange, Assistant News Editor
The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre

Minister of Justice Senator Mark Golding says the Evidence Act is to be broken down into three separate pieces of legislation due to its complexity.

He says the decision was taken during a meeting with officials from the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel last month.

Senator Golding said he is now waiting on that office to send him the revised draft of the Bill within the next two weeks.

The Justice Minister said while the Bill is in an advanced stage, he believes it would be easier to manage, if it is converted to three separate bills to cover different aspects of the evidence law.

He explained that the three categories will cover provisions for video conferencing, mutual legal assistance and general issues.

He says he expects to submit the three bills to the legislation committee next month with the hope of tabling them in Parliament in November.

There have been frequent calls for the Evidence Act to be put into law, to improve the conviction rate of offenders especially in those cases, where the crime is committed against a child or where the witness is unable to attend court.

radio@gleanerjm.com