Smacking Bill petition half way there

The petition calling for a CIR on the proposed changes to Section 59 already has 150,000 signatures after six weeks. I will be very surprised if they do not make the 310,000 needed seeing they have a year to do so.

So will Parliament pass the law in advance of the referendum?

Will the referendum be held in conjunction with the general election (which would save money) or will they waste money having it separately so voters don’t have the explicit reminder of the issue on election day?