February 16, 2017:
The Honourable Stuart Young, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, hosted the Post Cabinet Press Briefing today (Thursday 16th February, 2017) at the Diplomatic Centre, St. Ann’s, Port of Spain.
During the briefing the Honourable Terrence Deyalsingh, Minister of Health announced that Cabinet has approved funding for two important health initiatives:
- $7.7 million for the purchase of SELMA software system which is designed to help track and analyze HIV data
- $9 million dollars for the purchase of two extra viral load testing machines.
The Minister also thanked the Director of the Medical Research Foundation (MRF) Professor Courtenay Bartholomew for his service in the HIV medical research field. Bartholomew is set to resign soon.
Attorney General, Faris Al-Rawi announced his intention to introduce to Parliament four bills. Three of the bills are intended to improve the criminal justice system and are as follows:
-The Bail (Access to Bail) Amendment Bill 2017 which will allow persons to access bail through payments with cash or cheque
-The Indictable Offences (Pre-trial Procedures) Bill 2017 which will propose the abolition of the Preliminary Enquiry
-Criminal Procedure (Plea Discussion and Plea Agreement) 2017 which will allow accused persons to enter into plea discussion and agreements.
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