Premier Dr the Honourable Natalio Wheatley is expected to announce a date for the 2nd and 3rd readings of the Police Act 2023 following a decision to postpone the proceedings of the bill.
The decision was made during an informal meeting of the House of Assembly held on Thursday February 9th, as per a statement by At Large Representative Carvin Malone who was in attendance.
In addition to all 12 members of the House of Assembly, other stakeholders including the Attorney General’s Office, the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force and the Bar Association were a part of those discussions.
Providing some insight on the discussions that took place, the statement said “numerous suggestions for changes to the bill were voiced and widely agreed. There were concerns of provisions that are already in the Act of 2014 and repeated in the 2023 Bill so these were not agreed for removal. There were concerns that, once explained, were agreed as critical to policing and hence were agreed to remain. And finally, there were concerns that all parties agreed to remove in parts and in whole”.
Requests for agreed changes to the Bill are expected to be made and circulated to stakeholders prior to the 2nd and 3rd readings.
Malone intends to explore these changes publicly once circulated as part of discussions in his “One VI Agenda Forum”.