Final government response to the Board of Inquiry report

2024-02-08

The ACT Government has tabled its final response to the Report of the Board of Inquiry into the Criminal Justice System.

Delivery against the recommendations in the report has been a priority for the government to enhance confidence in the justice system.

Delivery against one recommendation is complete and action on the remaining nine is in progress.

The final government response includes an update to one of the interim responses and also describes the Government’s progress in relation to two recommendations as follows:

  1. Recommendation 2 – the response has been updated to reflect that the Victim of Crimes Amendment Bill 2023 has now been passed, completing this recommendation.
  2. Recommendation 7 – the response has been amended from “agreed in principle” to “agree”, consistent with further input from ACT Policing and ODPP.
  3. Recommendations 5 and 8 – the responses have been updated to reflect that stakeholder consultation in relation to these recommendations is underway.

Work is actively progressing in relation to all other recommendations.

Senior officials from the Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS), ACT Policing and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) formed the implementation group, which has driven the government’s progress on the recommendations.

Implementation of the recommendations will streamline and clarify processes in the ACT criminal justice system, particularly improving the experience for community members involved in the investigations and prosecutions of sexual offences.