Naomi Long
East Belfast · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“Underneath the Facebook posts to say that he had passed away, people speculated with such comments as, "Probably high on drugs", "Probably drunk", and, "Typical boy racer". There was all of that speculation. It was hurtful to the family, and it was inaccurate.”
“There are circumstances that we need to consider and be careful of. I was told, for example, that, when the issue of good character references at trial was being looked at in New South Wales — Committee members may wish to look at this for themselves — one of the groups that opposed their removal was representative of domestic abuse victi…”
“It sets out the strategic direction adopted by the Department and key partners to tackle those appalling crimes and protect vulnerable victims of exploitation.”
“The provision seeks to provide protection, via legal advice and representation for complainants, against the use of non-relevant personal material and evidence of previous sexual history being used in the court process.”
“<BR /> <BR />On the wider issue of ensuring that a withdrawal of services never happens again, I think that most of us agree that, although everyone has the right to take industrial action, no one has the right to derail and hold to ransom the entire justice system in that way.”
“Those measures will go some way towards helping to support complainants and enable them to have input into the decision-making process about what records containing their personal and sensitive information are required to be shared with the defence.”
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“A register of accredited organisations and practitioners will be published on the departmental website early in 2026.”
“My Department has been delivering on the commitments in the adult restorative justice strategy since its launch in 2022, including through the publication of the revised restorative justice protocol in 2023, a key aspect of which is the development of new practice standards and an accreditation framework to govern the delivery of future restorative work. That framework developed by my Department in the interim protocol lead was published on 17 October 2025 and aligned with the launch of the application process for those wishing to become accredited. That application window will be open for six weeks, closing on Friday 28 November. Once the applications close, the protocol lead and an independent suitability panel will assess and make recommendations on the appropriate level of accreditation.”
“The two currently accredited community organisations have played an important role in promoting community safety, repairing relationships and reducing antisocial behaviour. They work in partnership with justice partners to deliver restorative approaches to harm that does not meet the criminal threshold. They have also played a key role in the development of the new accreditation arrangements as part of the restorative justice working group.”
“Learning from the youth conferencing process is being used to develop and extend the use of restorative approaches in the adult justice system.”
“With your permission, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, I will answer questions 4 and 13 together. <BR /> <BR />Restorative justice is a well-established practice in Northern Ireland, both in the formal youth justice system and through community-based initiatives. It aims to address the harm and/or trauma caused by crime by involving victim, perpetrator and community and supporting dialogue to repair the harm caused and promote healing. It also emphasises the importance of supported rehabilitation in order to reduce the risk of further offending. <BR /> <BR />Restorative justice has been at the core of the youth justice system here for over two decades, and a range of independent reports and Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) inspections have recognised those benefits.?”
“<BR /> <BR />We are also looking at the ability of a police officer to consider whether relevant offenders should remain subject to indefinite notification requirements without the need for an application to be made from the relevant offender and at the ability for an application for a warrant for power of entry and search of an offender's home to be made by a court officer of at least the rank of inspector. Considerable work is ongoing in that space, because we will all agree that we want our children and, indeed, wider society to be properly protected from predators.”
“Those include, for example, the need to notify a new name no less than seven days in advance of it being used; the requirement to notify at least 12 hours in advance before entering qualifying premises where children are present; and the requirement to seek the approval of the police to apply for certain identity replacement documents, if they are in a new name. Instead of the need to amend this by way of statutory rule, we are now looking at the list of prescribed police stations where an offender must notify and at the ability for notification to be given virtually in certain circumstances but only where particular conditions are met. We are doing all that with a focus on not only trying to streamline how we manage sex offenders but how we ensure that the public are fully protected.”
“Home Office Ministers provide us with opportunities to further strengthen and streamline the current sex offender notification requirements by extending provisions proposed in the Crime and Policing Bill. As Members will appreciate, providing a consistent UK-wide approach to sex offender risk management is paramount to supporting wider public protection. I have secured the legislative consent of the Assembly for the greater part of the proposed provisions, for which I am grateful, and I intend to bring forward a further legislative consent motion (LCM) early in the new year to enable the introduction of some further provisions in Northern Ireland.”
“If the PSNI believes that the scheme is being underutilised, it can, of course, choose to prioritise some of its resources, but, given what we discussed during the last question, I think that I have made every effort throughout the past 18 months to make people aware of the scheme and to promote it. I encourage other MLAs to do so as well, because the scheme works well for public protection.”
“The first thing to say when it comes to points of order on this is that the data is not held by my Department, and there is an extant ruling from the Speaker that, when it comes to operational PSNI matters, I am not required to seek that data or to present it here as though it were my own. <BR />The second thing to say is that, possibly with the sole exception of the Member who asked the question, I have been one of the few MLAs who, when others have asked for disclosure of the names and addresses of all sex offenders, has repeatedly raised in the Chamber the fact that those disclosure schemes are available, the public can use them, the PSNI has a right to tell and the public have a right to ask. I do not have a budget to be able to promote the scheme.”
“Notwithstanding that it is for the PSNI to run the disclosure scheme, I want to reiterate the message that I have given before, which is that, if anyone is concerned about potential harm to a child or children, it is incumbent on them that, in the first instance, they contact the police.”
“Delivery of the child protection disclosure scheme is an operational matter for the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The scheme enables information to be disclosed to members of the public where it is necessary to protect children or a child from serious harm. The information may be requested by any member of the public and will be disclosed by the police, where it is appropriate to do so. <BR /> <BR />My Department is responsible for the overarching legal framework. I note that the disclosure scheme is in line with the requirements of article 50 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 and with statutory guidance that my Department published in accordance with that legislation. <BR /> <BR />Such public protection-related matters are kept under review.”
“A number of things are there, but, at the end of the day, the Executive will have to look at their overall Budget next year, deduct any projected overspends that are still in place at the end of the year and then look at the other pressures and decide where to allocate money. I will be one of the Ministers at the table and will make the case for this being a priority, but the agreement of all Ministers will be required for that to happen.”
“We do not know when the matter will crystallise. Our preference is to settle it as soon as possible, but we do not know whether it will crystallise this year or next. It is important that we do not set aside money this year and hold it until the last minute, because we will end up having to return it to the Treasury or to negotiate with the Treasury over a budget exchange scheme, which it is often not willing to do at Executive level. <BR /> <BR />We are looking at other options. For example, is there an option to convert capital into revenue that would allow us to pay a one-off sum? We are also looking at what options we have to negotiate with the Treasury on how to pay back any call on the reserve.”
“That means that, as we come up on our three-year Budget, the Executive will need to commit to what has already been indicated to me as a priority: the recovery plan. We need that to be written into the Budget for next year. <BR /> <BR />Far be it from me to speak on behalf of the Department of Finance and the Finance Minister when it comes to making those allocations, but he has so far indicated to me that that is his intention. Given that it meets the value-for-money criteria, it would make sense for us to do that. When he has made such promises, he has, to date, stood over them, so I can only rely on that.”
“Pay will, undoubtedly, have an impact on morale; there is no question about that. As I said, however, there are things other than pay and the speed at which people get their uplift that will impact on morale in the PSNI. The contractual pay arrangements have already been implemented. Since those are unavoidable, I have split them from the PRRB recommendations so that officers now automatically get their contractual uplift each October. That will have been received and will, hopefully, go some way to easing the pressure on officers. <BR /> <BR />I want to see two things, however. First, I want to see pay realised in-year for officers and in their pockets as quickly as we can make that happen. Secondly, I want to put the wider system, including the PSNI, on a sustainable footing.”
“He asked about the release of an individual on pre-release testing. I said that that person was time-served on their tariff; in fact, they were not time-served but approaching that point, which is why their pre-release testing had been started. Apologies to the House if anyone was misled by what I said.”
“I continue to engage with the Department of Finance, the Executive more widely, the NIO and Treasury, because, in addition to the issues of which we have been apprised already, there are the issues of legacy, the cost of policing and the pressure on the wider justice system coming down the tracks as a result of new legislation. We need to work out a sustainable model that allows us to have a Police Service that is properly resourced for its primary task but, at the same time, does not eat up the entire Justice budget, which would mean not being able to have courts, prisons and all the other facilities that we need to provide. <BR /> <BR />If I may, with your indulgence, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, I will correct, for the record, something that I said to Mr Clarke last week.”
“The Member will be aware that, when it comes to Justice funding in general, I have said on many occasions that we have seen an increase that is well below inflation; in fact, had we matched inflation over the last 10 years, Justice would have around £225 million in addition to what we have at the moment. That would have been a game changer when it comes to things such as injury to feelings, pensions issues, holiday pay and, indeed, the data breach. Those are things that at a better time, perhaps, we could have absorbed, but we are not in a position to do that now.”
“The pay review body, however, came back with a significantly higher allocation than expected, which left us with something of a gap to fill. The Chief Constable and I have been working hard to look at ways that we can do that. The Department and the PSNI are looking at some of the savings that we are trying to make, and I am pretty confident that we will be able to do that in-year. That is a better place to be than entering next year with an overspend and, essentially, having that trickle on into future years.”
“I am sorry; I did not catch all of the question, but I think it was referring to the police support staff potentially going on strike. Of course, the rationale for doing so is not to do with pay, because their pay has already been realised in-year. The issue there is to do with the settlement of the data breach claims. As I have done in the past when there have been disputes with staff or with any other sector, I urge people not to withdraw their services and go on strike but to work with me so that we can find the resources to make those payments. <BR /> <BR />It is important that the police are properly resourced, and that includes their pay. That is why I set money aside at the beginning of the year, when I was making my allocations, to allow for pay.”
“I can assure the Chamber that the successful implementation of the police officer pay award remains a priority for me as Justice Minister, and I am confident that the award will be realised by the end of this year.”
“<BR /> <BR />I am fully aware of the commitment given by the Health Minister that health workers can expect payment of their award in February 2026. The consequence is that funding will be deducted from the Health budget in the next financial year. That will, no doubt, have an impact in future years. While I am keen to ensure that police officers are treated on a par with other public sector workers, such decisions have wide-ranging implications for justice delivery. <BR /> <BR />I will continue to work with the Chief Constable to explore options to allow the PSNI to demonstrate affordability for the pay review body's recommendations.”
“With your permission, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, I will respond to questions 1 and 2 together. <BR /> <BR />I am committed to implementing the Police Remuneration Review Body's recommendations in respect of the 2025 police pay award as soon as possible. As Members are aware, public sector pay awards must meet the affordability test before they can be implemented. I have been consistent in advocating for police officer pay to be placed on an equal footing with other public sector workers. As a result of those representations, I was pleased to secure additional provisional allocations from the Executive specifically for police officer pay in October on the same basis as Health. Even with that additional funding, however, the PSNI remains unable to confirm affordability for the pay award at this time.”
“I would love to see them being more widely used, because the potential for efficiency savings, in both time and money, would be significant to court users, the system itself and all our justice partners. It is something that I feel quite passionate about. <BR /> <BR />I hope that that addresses all —. Well, I will not say "all" the issues that the Member had, because I know that the Member has many, many issues with the coronavirus legislation that are way above my pay grade. However, I hope that that has answered the main questions in relation to this particular legislation, and I thank the Members who engaged in the debate this afternoon.”
“The six months is all that is allowed for in the original Coronavirus Act, so, unfortunately — speaking as the realist that I am — even if the Committee were to take great haste on its way through the rest of the Bill, we will have still have at least one more rolling review to face, if not, two. However, at least we do it secure in the knowledge that primary legislation on live links is proceeding and that the Committee will have an opportunity, as will the House, to properly scrutinise the basis upon which we will take that forward. Knowing that we had the experience and tested it thoroughly during the COVID period, I would certainly like to see the uptake of live links start to go up again, their having fallen quite dramatically after COVID.”
“It is incredibly important that live links are available so that people have the opportunity, often through no fault of their own, to be compelled to engage in the justice system. The pressure that that puts on them and, often, on their legal representatives, can be very challenging. Live links can provide an avenue of communication that may reduce that stress or reduce the other pressures that participation in court hearings might bring. <BR /> <BR />We did take advice on the six-monthly rolling review. Unfortunately, it would not be proportionate for us to do it in a longer block.”
“That experience of using live links and remote access is something that we can learn from. Very often, people allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good, and we look for everything to be completely tested and thoroughly driven before we are willing to step out and give it a go. In this case, we did not have that luxury, but we found that it worked incredibly well. The issues that arose as a result of live links were ironed out pretty quickly in the courts. <BR /> <BR />When it comes to wider reform around the delivery of justice, we also have to bear in mind that it will require us to have a greater risk appetite than, perhaps, we have had in the past if we want to make real change to the speed with which we can deal with issues in the justice system.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and thanks to those Members who contributed to today's discussion. I have a couple of things to say. In addition to enabling access to justice, which is absolutely critical, this legislation has a role in speeding up justice and in bringing some economic efficiencies to bear on the system, so it has been very important for us to get this right. <BR /> <BR />It is a complex area. Necessity drove the process forward. I understand the point that the Chair makes in asking why nobody had thought of it before, but, of course, we had, and we had sought to engage with our justice partners. That engagement was slightly slow and tenuous in the beginning, but necessity drove engagement on it, and it had to be implemented to sustain court business during the COVID period.”
“<BR /> <BR />While there is no guarantee, based on current disposal rates, an optimistic timescale for Crown Courts and Magistrates' Courts to recover would be mid to late 2026. There remains support by court users, particularly those who advocate for victims of crime, for that avenue of participation to be available, subject to judicial approval, to those who would prefer not to attend a court in person. The use of those provisions aligns with commitments that were made, or are reflected in, the Victim Charter. Therefore, whilst I hope that I never have to repeat that lengthy introduction, as I untangle and wrestle with the wording of the motion, I commend the approval of the order to the Assembly and look forward to being in a position, hopefully in the near future, where we no longer have to rely on that temporary measure.”
“Other factors that play a role in the level of the backlogs include limited options for increasing case throughput by stakeholders, industrial action by other players in the criminal justice system and the extraordinary ongoing financial pressures that the Department faces. <BR /> <BR />Maintaining access to live links has been identified as being an essential means of addressing the caseload backlog, particularly in the criminal courts, and it continues to be a useful tool in facilitating the efficient management of court time. The Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service reports that the number of SightLink connections consistently averages approximately 23,000 per month. SightLink is to be replaced by the end of 2025 with a bespoke justice video platform based on Webex and provided by NICS IT Assist.”
“<BR /> <BR />The median number of days taken for a case to be completed in all courts from the date when an offence was reported to the date it was dealt with was 189 days in 2024-25, up 26·8% from 149 days in 2019-2020. That number reached a high of 226 days for cases that were dealt with in 2021-22. Similar impacts have been reported in England and Wales, as well as in Scotland. <BR /> <BR />Although progress is being made, a substantial percentage of cases, adult and youth, have been with the Crown Court and Magistrates' Court for more than three years. While the pandemic is not the sole factor in the level of the backlogs, it is, nevertheless, a significant material factor.”
“<BR /> <BR />There have been also been percentage increases for live cases in the Crown Court over the same period. The number of Crown Court cases, from the first court date after the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) decision to prosecute in the Crown Court, rose from 898 in March 2020 to a peak of 1,612 on 1 April 2022. The level remained high, at 1,585, on 1 April 2025, which is a 76·5% increase on the 1 March 2020 figure. <BR /> <BR />Within the adult Magistrates' Court, the number of cases from the first court date after the Public Prosecution Service decision to prosecute rose as a result of the pandemic, from 6,081 on 1 March 2020 to a peak of 10,545 on 1 April 2022. That number remained high, at 9,346 cases, on 1 April 2025, which is a 53·7% increase from the figure on 1 March 2020.”
“The Department's analysis of live case numbers at any stage, and of processing times for cases that were completed at courts in the years 2019-2020 to 2024-25, indicate that the pandemic not only had an impact at that time but continues to do so. For example, the total number of live Crown Court cases from the point at which a person is charged or informed rose from 940 on 1 March 2020 to a peak of 1,642 on 1 April 2022. That figure remained high on 1 April 2025, at 1,591 cases, up 69·3% from the figure in 1 March 2020. <BR /> <BR />The number of adult Magistrates' Court cases from the point at which a person is charged also rose from 25,604 on 1 March 2020 to a peak of 30,555 on 1 April 2021. That figure remained high on 1 April 2025 at 29,854 cases, which is an increase of 16% from the figure in March 2020.”
“Since the pandemic, Northern Ireland, like the other jurisdictions in the UK, has suffered a persistent backlog in the criminal courts. During the pandemic, more cases were received than disposed of in the criminal courts, which meant that the number of outstanding cases rose.”
“I remain keen to have the Justice Bill in place as soon as reasonably practical, but it will be well into next year before that can happen, as the Bill's Committee Stage has been extended to March 2026. I am conscious of the concern expressed in past debates on similar motions about relying on emergency-related legislation and wish that there were a practical alternative to continuing to rely on the provisions as a temporary measure. However, there is justification for doing so, in that the legacy of the pandemic continues to have an impact on the justice system today.”
“The extension will allow us to maintain access until March 2026 to a digital tool that has proved to be an essential element of the toolkit for addressing the backlog of cases accrued during and since the pandemic. <BR /> <BR />Members will recall, from the debates on similar motions for approval in 2024 and earlier this year, that we intend to put in place new primary legislation to provide a long-term legislative solution for live links in courts and tribunals. The Justice Bill, which, if enacted, will ultimately resolve the issue, was introduced last year and is at Committee Stage. Meanwhile, this further extension will allow us to maintain efficacy in the system. It will offer an avenue for wider access for participation in the courts where a judge is satisfied that that is in the interests of justice.”
“I seek the Assembly's approval for the Coronavirus Act 2020 (Extension of Provisions Relating to Live Links for Courts and Tribunals) (No. 2) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025, SR 2025/151. <BR /> <BR />I am grateful to the Justice Committee and the Examiner of Statutory Rules for their scrutiny of the order. Article 2 extends the provisions allowing courts and statutory tribunals in Northern Ireland to receive evidence wholly or in part using audio or video conferencing systems, commonly referred to as "live links". Live links are primarily video systems that are utilised to facilitate the attendance of persons participating remotely in any court or tribunal hearing. The provisions are in addition to legislation that allows the use of a video link for a specific witness or defendant, with all other participants attending in the courtroom.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I can probably make this simple for everybody, although I am happy to take a further question from the Member. I was asked the question, "Was he allowed in the Portadown area?". I answered that question by saying, "No, he was not".”
“Part of his pre-release testing was about where he was and was not allowed to go. Were he to have been seen by a passing patrol or by probation officers, or were anyone else to have reported his presence in the area, he would automatically have failed his pre-release testing. When people are unaccompanied, the situation is exactly as it says on the tin: they are released and unaccompanied. That does not happen, however, until after they have completed other parts of the pre-release testing process, and that process is there to test their conduct and behaviour, both when unaccompanied and when supervised. At that stage, we are talking about very short periods, during which it would be very difficult for somebody to make the journey that you are suggesting without being identified as having done so.”
“<BR /> <BR />If I wanted to get up here and play the kind of petty and, frankly, grotesque politics that the Member is playing, I could raise the fact that none of this would have happened had our health service been functioning.”
“I have not, in any shape or form, sought to minimise the catastrophic impact on the Cawdery family. To make out that there was some systemic failure because someone failed to press a button on a computer is an outrageous and unfounded allegation. Any person can make an error, and someone did. As Minister, my job is one of leadership to ensure that all possible steps are taken to ensure that that is not repeated. We have already done that through our quick review of how it happened, by putting additional resource into the PRVIS unit and by looking at each of the other cases in which we are dealing with life-sentence prisoners. We will go ahead and do the rest in slower time, with the resource that is available to us.”
“I am tempted to treat the Member's TikTok preview with the contempt that it deserves, but, given the seriousness of the issue and the fact that I have met the family, I am not going to do so; I am going to give answers. This is not the only place in the UK where somebody who has committed murder would be released on licence after eight years, so that is factually incorrect. There are many parts of these islands where people, after serving their minimum tariff, are released on compassionate grounds for short periods for pre-release testing, both accompanied and unaccompanied, and in different sets of circumstances, so that is a fallacy. <BR /> <BR />The Member then predicates that there has been a failure of leadership in this case. There was an administrative error.”
“The alternative is that we simply open the prison door and let people go when they have served their tariff.”
“We could either do that automatically, in which case that person would always be unaccompanied without any testing, or we could go through a process of pre-release testing, as we do in the Northern Ireland Prison Service, whereby we first release people accompanied and then, for short periods, release them unaccompanied, which is what happened in this case. That is the basic way in which pre-release testing works. Yes, people who have committed heinous crimes and have served the tariff on their sentences will be tested to see whether they are ready to be rehabilitated and are capable of moving back into the community. Failure to meet the requirements of pre-release testing will lead to it not happening. Those people will then be referred through the testing system.”
“We need to ensure that people are adequately trained and properly supported and that we have a full complement of people working in the prison system in order to ensure that such errors do not happen in future, insofar as anyone can prevent human error. <BR /> <BR />On the issue of how a murderer can be released four times unaccompanied, I want to be clear that we are talking about someone who has served the tariff on their sentence. A judge made a decision that, at the point of tariff, provided that they passed a number of tests, they were free to be released on licence into the community.”
“I am not sure whether the Member was here when I said this in answer to an earlier question, but there was a single administrative error. There were not multiple mistakes; there was a single error. Due to that single error, the family's connection with the prisoner on the system was deleted. That was the single error. <BR /> <BR />People are held to account when they make mistakes, but it depends on what the Member means. If he is asking me whether heads will roll, while that might satisfy some people, I do not think that that is how we should deal with staff who are operating a system that is under the level of pressure that our prison system is under.”
“He was not allowed to enter the Portadown area while he was on pre-release testing.”
“Their names were in the system, but they were not connected to the particular prisoner, and, as a result of that, each time that individual prisoner was released — on 13 different occasions — no one was notified. It was not 13 different administrative errors; it was a single error in adding an additional person to that individual's case that led to the 13 releases without them being notified. As I said, we have now suspended all further pre-release testing, and we will meet the family to ensure that, before pre-release testing recommences, as it must, their witness report statements will be available and they will have an opportunity to make witness and victim representations to the system, as should have been the case on each occasion.”
“I am aware that an inquiry followed those murders, and it is fair to say that, before anyone is released for pre-release testing, their mental health condition has to be stable and well managed and they will only be released if those issues are being addressed. If someone is, for example, going through a period of instability, they will not be released for pre-release testing and will not reach the point of release in that process. <BR /> <BR />The Member refers to the fact that there were 13 incidents. To be clear, what happened simply was that, as a result of adding an additional family member to the system, all family members on the system were deleted from the system and were not attached to the individual prisoner. Instead of having three family members rather than two appear on the system, no family members appeared on the system.”