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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“One of the pieces of work that we are funding the Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime to undertake is an assessment of the services that are available, with identification of the gaps in service, so that we can better provide those services to the people who need them most. It is important to recognise that domestic and sexual abuse is no respecter of race, gender, age, colour or creed. We need to recognise that many abuse victims who live with that pain never disclose it to anyone. I thank the men who disclosed it for the research that was produced, because that has been hugely helpful in guiding what the Minister of Health and I will be able to take forward as a programme in response.”
“First, I share the Member's concern about the rising number of domestic-related homicides in Northern Ireland. That is one reason why we have introduced domestic homicide reviews. The learning from those reviews will, I believe, be instructive in ensuring that our partners who respond at an operational level are able to do so better and to constantly refine and improve their performance in protecting the public. <BR /> <BR />I came here from an event to mark International Men's Day, and it is important to acknowledge the number of male victims of domestic and sexual abuse, who often struggle, due to the stigma around admitting that they are victims of abuse and the difficulty of accessing services.”
“Those powers are slightly convoluted and complex, so something that I hope to do in one of my Bills in this mandate is simplify and expand the list of sentences that can be appealed for leniency in order to make that process much easier.”
“First, it would not be appropriate for me or my Department to engage directly with the Director of Public Prosecutions or the judiciary on any specific sentence, because they are completely impartial and independent of the Department and it is right that they should be. However, at the criminal justice board, for example, we discuss sentence leniency and the perception that that creates in the community and the fact that people often feel frustrated that, having managed to get someone convicted for a serious offence, they find that the sentence does not appear to match the crime. We have that conversation. <BR /> <BR />There are already powers for the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal against a sentence on the basis of leniency.”
“The White Ribbon campaign has come to Hydebank Wood to work with our young men and women to challenge attitudes. We have had a number of partnerships, but it is important that, at all times, we recognise the power of peer intervention. In Hydebank Wood, we focused on how young men would react, if they saw peers behaving in a way that, they thought, was unacceptable. We can all learn from that, so that, when we see someone behaving in a way that is aggressive and unacceptable, we are not afraid to speak out and stand up for a person who may be fearful.”
“There are programmes that allow perpetrators, either through self-referral or police referral, to engage directly with us. For some time, the Department has funded the Promoting Positive Relationships programme, which is run by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland. It aims to provide men who are alleged to have been abusive in their intimate relationships and whose children have been assessed by social services as being at risk with an opportunity to engage in intervention involving an integrated group work programme. The purpose of that programme is to develop their knowledge and skills so that they can have healthy, non-abusive relationships. <BR /> <BR />As part of the new DSA strategy, the Department is undertaking work to look at costed options to enhance measures to address such behaviours.”
“However, it is important to say that we have engaged with the local community, the PCSP and the PSNI to ensure that they have the resources available to do the work that they need to do in that context. <BR /> <BR />It is also important to say that, if people remain fearful and afraid, that is unacceptable. We need to change the culture in this place and in other places where it is acceptable to be aggressive, violent or abusive towards women. Until we get that right in the House and everywhere else, we will not see a sea change in how women are treated on our streets.”
“Yes. The Department has engaged with the PCSP on additional funding and how it spends the money that it has at the moment. I am aware, for example, that the PSNI has increased patrols and that the PCSP has additional measures in place, whereby people can get alarms to carry with them for additional reassurance. There are challenges, and it is not an easy issue. Ultimately, my Department mainly leads on the issue of policy, and there are no quick policy fixes to violence against women and girls. <BR /> <BR />On the operational side, delivery of service generally falls to arm's-length bodies over which I do not have direct authority and control.”
“<BR /> <BR />From my perspective, building confidence is about ensuring that people get the service that they need when they need it and that, if they do not get the service that they need when they need it, they know the routes to complain about that. It is important that people are familiar with the Victim Charter and the Witness Charter; understand their entitlements and rights; and feel confident enough to exercise those, even at a point of crisis.”
“Most of the support for victims is provided via other Departments in collaboration with my Department. However, there is a range of cross-departmental priorities where we have allocated funding, including the ASSIST advocacy service; advocacy for the families of victims of domestic homicide; training for law enforcement and other front-line professionals; support for domestic homicide reviews; interventions such as Operation Encompass; and the development of educational resources within the CCEA hub, all to support the prevention of domestic and sexual abuse. Funding in that area is also coming from the Executive Office for the Executive's strategy for ending violence against women and girls.”
“<BR /> <BR />We know that women and girls are not exclusively affected by domestic and sexual abuse, but they are disproportionately so. Therefore, the measures to address domestic and sexual abuse under the strategy will also directly contribute to the broader goals of ending violence against women and girls. The delivery of the outcomes and objectives under the strategy is supported by a three-year action plan that sets out a range of specific actions that are intended to create a lasting change. For the 2024-25 financial year, a ring-fenced budget of £1·62 million has been prioritised from the Department of Justice’s core budget to support the delivery of cross-departmental work to tackle domestic and sexual abuse.”
“Mr Speaker, with your permission, I will answer questions 7 and 12 together. <BR /> <BR />I condemn all acts of violence that endanger the safety and well-being of women and girls. In recent times, we have seen an increase in reported violence, including attacks in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area. My Department is continuing to work collaboratively with other key Departments to help eradicate violence against women and girls. That includes work under the domestic and sexual abuse (DSA) strategy, which is led by my Department and the Department of Health and builds on new offences and measures that I introduced in the last mandate to tackle domestic abuse, non-fatal strangulation and stalking that are actively helping to keep women and girls safer.”
“Absolutely. If people have housing, employment and family support, they are much less likely to offend in the first place and, indeed, to reoffend, so it is a huge part of the work that we do on rehabilitation. On bail and remand reviews, that is a decision that was taken by the Lady Chief Justice when we had discussions with her in respect of the vulnerability of people being released, often on a Friday afternoon, when mainstream services have ceased for the week, leaving them to cope over the weekend without that support. That initiative that she has piloted by moving those reviews to earlier points in the week so that, when people are released from custody, they have access to those services is hugely beneficial. It at least gives people an opportunity, when they are released into the community again, to make the best start possible.”
“Unfortunately, as many Members will recognise from working with their constituents, it is the lack of community-based interventions around addiction and mental health that is often the stumbling block for people on release from prison rather than the absence of those supports in the prison.”
“Every prisoner who is committed to our care, whether on sentence or on remand, will be asked questions and can share information with us, up to the point that they wish to do so, about any historical issues with their mental health or with addiction. There are therapeutic services, but they are provided not by the Prison Service but by the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, as is all of the healthcare for prisoners. There are other interventions that are made in the prison setting to deal with addiction, with the trauma that often predates the addiction and with mental health issues and to provide the correct support. The key to this is to ensure that that through-the-door support continues and that there is continuity of provision in the community.”
“We are willing to play our role in a collaborative effort with other Departments to ensure that we do better by those who leave custody. We know that having a home is one of the main reasons why people desist from offending.”
“The introduction of housing advisers in Maghaberry provides early intervention on housing needs and allows decisions on accommodation to take cognisance of other resettlement factors, including health and employability. There is also the use of approved premises to enable appropriate support and supervision arrangements to be put in place for high-risk offenders who are subject to public protection arrangements in Northern Ireland and the introduction of a partnership project between Hydebank Wood Secure College and Belfast City Council's Complex Lives, looking at how better information sharing at committal and release could support the females most at risk of chronic homelessness. <BR /> <BR />It is not an issue that is only or even primarily for the Department of Justice.”
“A protocol for the management of accommodation and the related support needs of people in custody was published by the Housing Executive in December 2023 and sets out a collaborative approach to addressing accommodation needs by the Housing Executive, Housing Rights, the Probation Board and the Prison Service. <BR /> <BR />The Prison Service has also put in place initiatives to mitigate the risk of homelessness for those leaving prison. They include an assessment of prisoner needs on committal, which includes their housing arrangements and enables staff to put in place interventions, for example, to prevent someone on a short sentence losing their tenancy.”
“Initiatives are in place to mitigate the risk of homelessness, but, to be clear, when somebody leaves prison, they leave the care of the prison system and the Department of Justice. We cannot, for example, retain people in custody or deprive them of their liberty at the end of their sentence on the basis that they have nowhere to go. <BR /> <BR />Prisoners will often not share the information with us. Many have not given us a forwarding address. They are not obliged to, once they have discharged their sentence. It is widely acknowledged that there is a lack of suitable social and affordable housing, and that is felt acutely by those who are leaving prison.”
“Despite those measures, 265 prisoners were released from a custodial sentence without a permanent forwarding home address between 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024.”
“The provision of stable accommodation for those on release from prison is a critical factor in ensuring desistance from reoffending and resettlement into the community. Whilst responsibility for the allocation of housing sits solely with the Department for Communities and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the Northern Ireland Prison Service takes a proactive approach to preventing homelessness by ensuring that everyone coming into custody is assessed and those with accommodation needs are given appropriate support. A number of initiatives are in place with statutory and voluntary and community sector partners to mitigate the risk of homelessness for those leaving prison.”
“It is important that, when we look at those who are at risk, we consider the impact on children. As you are aware, in the domestic abuse offences, there are statutory aggravators that take account of children being aware of, having had sight of or hearing domestic abuse taking place. It is important that, when we look, for example, at that person of concern, who is essentially the person about whose violent behaviours we are concerned, we remember that that person of concern will have links to other people, including children, as well as the main intimate partner, who may be the subject of their domestic violence. That will be taken into account.”
“As part of the work that we are undertaking, we are exploring the potential to pilot arrangements for a daily risk assessment meeting (DRAM) that would operate in support of MARAC in the first instance but would look at more immediate interventions for high-risk victims. We are also exploring how to pilot the arrangements in a single health and social care trust area, building on already established partnerships between trusts and the PSNI. We hope to launch that pilot in January and run it until the end of the financial year 2025-26, with an evaluation to follow.”
“Through those workshops, members will consider how to build in a "person of concern" focus in order to ensure that new arrangements will focus not only on reducing the risk to the victim but on reducing the risk from the person of concern. I am confident that this work will result in a robust multi-agency arrangement that will make a material difference to the safety of high-risk victims of domestic abuse.”
“The group's key objectives are to identify costed recommendations for new multi-agency risk assessment arrangements and supporting processes; improve risk assessment and management in order to increase the safety of victims of domestic abuse; and reduce the risk posed by perpetrators of domestic abuse. The working group plans to hold a series of facilitated workshops to work through and agree recommended changes for how new arrangements should operate.”
“I am committed to ensuring that the risk that is posed to victims of domestic abuse is assessed and managed as effectively as possible. Members will be aware that Leonard Consultancy conducted an independent review of the multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) arrangements on behalf of all strategic partners involved. The review examined MARAC's operational effectiveness and identified potential learning and opportunities for improved effectiveness. <BR /> <BR />My Department has now established a dedicated multi-agency working group to consider and respond to that review's findings, with a view to strengthening the responses to and protections for victims of domestic abuse.”
“and that 7,200 was about the right number. We are now looking to see how we can get to that and maintain it.”
“I am confident that it will be taken seriously as a bid going forward. The third strand is looking at what shape the overall numbers in the Police Service should take in the years ahead. The report that the Chief Constable commissioned reckoned that it was somewhere between”
“One of the key things for stabilisation is ensuring that we stave off the attrition and loss of officers to other parts of these islands. The recent allocation allowed the PSNI to, first and foremost, clear what was left of its in-year pressures, but it will also put us in a position from which we will be able to, as I have already done, indicate our support for the PRRB pay recommendations. That is important. If we do not pay our officers, they will go elsewhere to jobs that are perhaps more straightforward and less stressful. That is the first stage of the stabilisation process. <BR /> <BR />As I said, the second stage is looking at getting money for the business case so that we can deliver more officers into the service. The Executive — certainly, the Executive parties have done this — have expressed their desire to see that happen.”
“It will, however, require the support of my Executive colleagues, including the Minister of Finance, to get that business case through.”
“In the first instance, it is not about the numbers that the Chief Constable aspires to. We are undertaking a separate work stream in parallel with stabilisation processes to identify what the right size of the Police Service should be. We will work with the Chief Constable and others on that. However, the issue is about what we can do in this mandate. We have only three years left, and there is limited capacity in the training school. Therefore, we are trying to add roughly 150 officers to the PSNI each year. Funding for that will come through a business case, in which we will set out the cost to society if we do not achieve that objective. That would take us up to just shy of 7,000 officers, which is the target figure that we agreed for that phase.”
“I assure Members that I will continue to support the Chief Constable where I can while respecting his operational independence.”
“With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will take questions 4 and 8 together. <BR /> <BR />I share the Chief Constable's ambition to increase police officer numbers. However, the reality is that police officer numbers cannot increase without additional funding, which I have been actively working to secure through the appropriate channels. My officials have been working closely and constructively with the Chief Constable and his team to support the PSNI on the development of a plan to recover police officer numbers and to enable a case to be made to the Department of Finance for additional funding. <BR /> <BR />I acknowledge that the Chief Constable expressed disappointment that the draft Programme for Government does not adequately reflect the issues that face policing here and that he wants to see the commitments strengthened.”
“I am wholly convinced that, should we receive funding through those bids, it will afford us opportunities to improve effectiveness and efficiency and to meet the increased and changing demands on the system, providing stability for the future.”
“<BR /> <BR />Our bid to reduce reoffending, alongside measures to address the prison population, involves the Department for Communities. It includes provision for investments in a bail support scheme to divert people from custody, the roll-out of enhanced combination orders through the Probation Board as an alternative to short prison sentences and a review of the Prison Service framework for delivering rehabilitation. <BR /> <BR />Finally, we have a bid to create a multidisciplinary team to examine the technical and policy implications of implementing GPS location monitoring for those on bail or licence to be fitted with an electronic tag as part of their release conditions. <BR /> <BR />All three bids present innovative and transformative solutions to the challenges facing the justice system.”
“Yes, I am very pleased to provide some insight into the bids that have made it through for further consideration by the interim board. We made a bid, which has been supported by the Criminal Justice Board, to speed up the transformation of the criminal justice system. That bid is in partnership with the Public Prosecution Service and will, among other things, reduce demand through providing a proportionate response to offending, including increasing non-court disposals. It will invest in early engagement across the justice system, including between police and prosecution, and prosecution and defence, to maximise efficiencies. The bid will also seek to utilise and exploit technology to support transformation.”
“I look forward to the consideration of the recommendations at the Executive.”
“I was pleased to present five innovative and transformative bids from my Department to the interim public-sector transformation board. Following consideration by the interim board, I welcome the fact that three of those bids have moved forward for further consideration. The bids relate to three key areas: speeding up and transforming the criminal justice system; reducing reoffending and prison population initiatives; and electronic monitoring for those on bail or on licence. All three bids present innovative and transformative solutions to some of the challenges that face the justice system. Although the timescale for notifying the outcome of the stage 2 assessment has not been confirmed yet, I understand that the interim board will provide advice to the Finance Minister and that recommendations will then be made to the Executive.”
“I hope to address that during this mandate, but it is a sensitive and complex legal issue on which we will need to take significant advice. We are keen to consider including it in the final Bill that we intend to introduce in the mandate.”
“It is not for the Department of Justice to maintain a record of people once they have exited the justice system, which is the last point of contact for which we are responsible; they then move into services that are provided by the Department of Health. It is important that we recognise that, once people have gone through the justice system and completed that journey, they move into those other services. It is something, however, that I would be happy to raise with the Department of Health.”
“That is, ultimately, a matter for the judiciary, in that it is a judicial-led protocol, but the fact that it has now been extended to under-16s across the board augurs well for our seeing it more widely extended. We would certainly support that. Importantly, there are other ways in which we can assist child victims, particularly younger child victims. As I said, we intend to do some work with child SOLAs and to extend the REC programme, but there are other pieces of work that we are committed to taking forward, including a trial of pre-recorded witness statements and evidence.”
“We are very committed to looking at the Barnahus-style model for Northern Ireland. There is a successful model in Iceland, there is one in Scotland, and there is now one in the South. It is something that we want to do. The joint working group completed some benchmarking of current relevant services against the Barnahus quality standards. The group gained some useful information from several study visits that it made. The next stage is that we will use those findings to develop high-level options and commence analysis of costings.”
“That includes funding for Victim Support NI to deliver the children's independent sexual violence advocate (ChISVA) service and the NSPCC young witness service, which supports young victims and witnesses who are called to give evidence. We also contribute funding to the ASSIST NI advocacy service, which is dedicated to providing support to all victims of domestic and sexual abuse.”
“So far this year, 317 witnesses, including 133 children, have attended, or are scheduled to attend, an REC to give evidence. All achieving best evidence (ABE) interviews with child victims of sexual offences are now conducted by a specialist ABE cadre with expertise in that area. <BR /> <BR />The Minister of Health and I are also committed to considering the development of a Barnahus-style model for Northern Ireland to provide a multidisciplinary and rights-based response for child victims and witnesses of violence. <BR /> <BR />My Department also continues to provide funding to support services for child victims of sexual crime.”
“Sexual offences legal adviser (SOLA) services have been provided successfully, giving free legal advice and support to more than 2,000 adult complainants in serious sexual offence cases. Those services will shortly be extended to child complainants. My officials have engaged with stakeholders, including children and young people, to develop the child SOLA scheme, which will provide general and specific legal advice on their case and ensure that their interests and wishes are communicated to the court. <BR /> <BR />Remote evidence centres (RECs) have been established in Belfast and Craigavon to provide a safe, comfortable space away from the court building for vulnerable witnesses, including children, to give their best evidence by video link.”
“My Department continues to oversee a multi-agency programme of work to implement the Gillen review's recommendations. That work includes progress against a range of recommendations intended to support child victims of serious sexual offences, including the ongoing delivery of a judge-led voluntary protocol to expedite serious sexual offence cases involving child witnesses under 13 years of age in Belfast Crown Court and Antrim Crown Court. An evaluation of the protocol cases in 2023 found that there was a 70% reduction in the average time taken between reporting the crime and court disposal. The principles of the protocol have been extended to similar cases for children aged under 16 across all court areas.”
“The investment in that particular piece of work is not something that would be clawed back from the sale of the site. The structure has already been dismantled. As you know, we were able to use the site at the behest of the MOD, so no clawback is involved.”
“I am not sure how that question relates to the estates strategy for the PSNI, but, nevertheless, I am happy to answer it. <BR /> <BR />The recent additional funding allocation of £39·3 million to my Department includes £36·7 million that has been allocated to the PSNI. The Member will be aware that the Chief Constable has welcomed that allocation, as it meets in full the pressures that the PSNI identified to sustain policing in this financial year. It is now for the PSNI to produce a business case for that, but I have given my approval to the recommendations of the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB).”
“The management of the PSNI estate, including acquisitions, is entirely an operational matter for the Chief Constable, who is accountable to the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB). I will, however, continue to work with the Chief Constable, my Executive colleagues and the Department of Finance to ensure that we have a police service that is properly resourced in all aspects for the challenges that it faces.”
“Over the years, she was a huge encouragement and support to me, as she was to many. I will miss her directness, candour, wit and humour so much. Anna quietly shaped and, on occasion, even changed my views in ways that she will never know, all thanks to her honesty and compassion. For those of you who know me, you will appreciate the achievement that that represents. <BR /> <BR />Anna was not a religious person. As a humanist, she believed in the goodness of people and their ability to transcend division. She exemplified that, every day of her life. Good things do, indeed, come in small packages, and Anna Lo was the best of us. She was my friend: warm, witty, funny, fierce, courageous and kind. I will miss her enormously, but she will live on in her legacy and in the hearts of all those whom she touched with her kindness.”