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.”
The complete record
Every one of 7,548 lines we hold for Naomi Long, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 75 of 151.
“With the cooperation of your colleague who chairs the Justice Committee, we will, hopefully, get that Bill to the Committee next spring. Then, it will then be a matter of working through the consultation on that. Towards the end of next year, I hope that we will be in a position to put it on the statute book.”
“There are a number of things that the Department can do. First, I intend, as part of the sentencing Bill that I have planned as the second Bill in the mandate, to bring forward new provisions for emergency and front-line workers to ensure that the maximum sentence is increased for offences where someone has attacked a police officer, a member of the Ambulance Service or a member of the Fire and Rescue Service. It is not right that anyone going about their daily job and trying to protect people's lives should be subject to abuse. We need to give the courts the space to apply higher sentences in those cases.”
“Current protected groups, such as race, religion, sexual orientation and disability, will be retained in legislation, and the Bill will allow intersectionality to be recognised and other protected groups to be added to that at a later date, should the evidence emerge. We are already exploring potential additions that may come forward as part of that Bill.”
“The main aim of the Bill will be to ensure that legislation represents the most effective approach for the justice system to deal with criminal conduct motivated by hostility and to assist victims to seek redress through the criminal justice system. It will introduce a new statutory aggravation model that will see specific hate crime offending recognised in law and recorded on criminal records and ensure recognition of the hate crime element of any offence from the start of the process. It will also provide necessary powers to ensure that action can be taken against offenders.”
“We are also looking at the scope of some additional victim provisions that may be able to be included in that Bill.”
“One of my key priorities as Minister of Justice has been to improve support and legislative protection for victims of hate crime. Somebody being targeted because of who they are, where they are from or what they believe is unacceptable to us all. Obviously, the Department has been working to implement Judge Marrinan's report on his review of hate crime legislation and plans to modernise and strengthen a robust response to this through the introduction of a hate crime Bill. <BR /> <BR />With regard to the legislative programme and the available time that is left to us, it will be difficult to achieve as much as I would have hoped to have achieved, had we had a full mandate of five years. However, I believe that we can bring forward a foundational hate crime Bill and, hopefully, introduce that to the Assembly in 2026.”
“It is not a matter for me to have a view. The issue is whether I have any responsibility or levers to control those matters, and I do not, because, as Minister of Justice, it would not be appropriate. I am sure that colleagues in the Chamber who are members of the Policing Board would be more than happy to follow up. We have been able to ensure that things like the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust and other initiatives to support officers are in place. That is not something that I can do. It is, however, something that the Policing Board and the Chief Constable are acutely aware of.”
“Again, the provision of support services for the PSNI is a matter for the Chief Constable and the Policing Board. It is not a matter for the Department of Justice.”
“The recruitment of police officers is an operational matter for the Chief Constable, who is accountable to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. I am committed to respecting their operational independence in this matter. I will continue to work with the Chief Constable to ensure that the Police Service is properly resourced for all aspects of the challenges that it faces. I have not had particular representation from the business community, but I am aware that, on other issues, the business community have made representation about, for example, the increase in assaults on shopworkers. There are some measures that the Department will be able to bring forward as part of a sentencing Bill to address some of those concerns.”
“Again, it is not my job to assess current police numbers. I will not demur from the current Chief Constable's assessment. He has said that he believes that police numbers are too low, and I think that most of us would agree with that on the basis of our experience.”
“As I mentioned, we have also had to reopen the square houses, which we had hoped would be demolished by now, in order to provide additional accommodation. They are more resource-intensive. The issue is not a lack of officers, however, because we continue to recruit and train.”
“We continue to recruit actively to the Prison Service. Indeed, we have passing out parades in the Long Gallery almost biweekly, should any of you wish to go there to celebrate those who have committed themselves to working in the Prison Service. It is not simply an issue of lack of staffing. The challenge is that the number of people in prison has increased. I said earlier that there has been around a 34% increase in the prison population. That leads to people having to double up in cells. During COVID, nobody was doubled up, other than whose who had requested it. By contrast, a significant proportion of the prison population is now doubled up. All of that provides a challenge to those who look after people in our prisons.”
“Thank you. That issue is of ongoing concern, as the Member will understand. As prisons become more crowded, they become a higher-stress environment. I pay tribute to the work that our prison officers do daily in looking after some of the most complex and often difficult individuals in society but also providing those individuals with a rehabilitative environment. That is incredibly challenging, and, as a result, people will often either be injured at work or suffer significant stress. We have put measures in place, including providing access to the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust and Prisons Well, which is concerned with looking after the mental health and well-being of officers, to try to address challenges with attendance. It is a challenging area.”
“I have already made it clear that I have no powers to review the PPS, and I have no powers to direct the PPS. The PPS is entirely independent. It is funded by the Department of Finance — that comes directly from the Finance Minister — and is not part of the landscape of the Department of Justice. I recognise the seriousness of the issues that have been raised by Operation Kenova and welcome the publication of the interim report; I hope that it provides the families with some measure of comfort and value. What will not provide them with comfort or value is Members asking me to do that which I have no power to do.”
“I remind Mr O'Toole that the PPS is a non-ministerial department that is entirely separate from the Department of Justice. I do not answer for the PPS, I do not provide its funding and I do not deal with its issues. The Member asked me specifically whether I have confidence in the PPS: I do.”
“It is clear, if you look at the interim review report, that, although a lot of progress has been made — indeed, a new drugs response strategy has been implemented and embedded in Magilligan — there is still much work to do.”
“The individual units provide 88 beds, and, against a backdrop of a significantly increasing prison population, there are no plans to expand provision in Magilligan at this time.”
“Many people come into our prisons with long-established addictions from years of drug use in the community. That results in the Prison Service, along with its partners in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, investing heavily in supporting, and, indeed, in challenging, those people to address their addictions, which, all too often, are central to their offending behaviour. <BR /> <BR />As part of that approach, Magilligan operates two units in the prison whose entry criteria require an individual to be drug-free or to be engaging in programmes that support recovery from addiction. Those supportive environments help reduce demand while promoting the individual's self-esteem, family contact, release planning and throughcare with key partners in the community.”
“If the issue is about reform of the injury-on-duty scheme, that is a separate issue. I was asked a specific question on whether my Department intended to relieve the Policing Board of its duties under the current injury-on-duty scheme, which is the running of the initial scheme. The Department runs the independent appeals process. I said that we had not discussed that issue. I have in front of me, Trevor, your correspondence from the Policing Board.”
“That is a really important issue. I am pleased to inform the Assembly that the independent referee assessment process recommenced on 4 March 2024. Moreover, the Department is in the final stages of procurement with a supplier for further resource to carry out that function so that we can resolve the backlog. We are hopeful that we will be able to get started on that soon.”
“I am very conscious of the issue. I have not received any such request from the Northern Ireland Policing Board. Were such a request made, I would have to consider its implications, set against my Department's current business priorities, but I would be happy to do so.”
“My Department has no current plans to introduce legislation or to amend existing legalisation to remove injury-on-duty and pensions from the Policing Board's responsibilities.”
“I will not, however, be stepping in and directing the Chief Constable, nor would anybody want me to.”
“I am rather shocked that someone from the SDLP wants the Minister of Justice directing the police on operational matters, because, when it came to the Patten review, you were some of the most outspoken on the point that no future Minister of Justice should ever direct the police or interfere in operational matters. It is a very bizarre take. I am not the Minister for policing; my title is "The Minister of Justice". We do not have a Minister for policing in Northern Ireland; that is what the Policing Board does. <BR /> <BR />My conversations with the Chief Constable are constructive and helpful. He is working on proposals for what he needs. I am working with Executive colleagues to try to ensure that we can get as much resource as possible for the Department.”
“My colleague raises a very valid point. Really complex issues underlie most offending behaviour, none more so than antisocial behaviour. On foot of a review that we have undertaken and the consultation, we are looking to bring forward some proposals for consideration. <BR /> <BR />Policing and community safety partnerships are also well placed to bring forward some of the operational response to community safety and antisocial behaviour across communities in Northern Ireland. It is important that we recognise the important work done by other agencies and the voluntary and community sector in that space. They play a huge role in not only developing appropriate actions to reduce the impact of ASB but engaging, long term, with some young people at risk of offending in order to deflect them from that.”
“<BR /> <BR />It is important to say that the PSNI and other partners in the national rural crime unit have been working together to look at things such as recent thefts and how they can be more innovative around protection and the prevention and reporting of crime.”
“There are a number of things that I will say to that. The first is that we are a member of the rural crime partnership. I mentioned some of the other members of that and what we are able to deliver in a rural setting. There is also a role for the PCSPs, which are funded by my Department, to do local awareness raising and provide schemes to encourage members of the public to report what they see and incidents that, they feel, do not need an immediate response. You do not have to dial 999 when you see an incident; you can use the non-emergency line in order to let the police know what is happening in the area and, hopefully, allow them to factor that in when it comes to doing the rest of their work.”
“It is something that we collectively, rather than simply the Department of Justice, need to work together on. We have very few operational levers. It is generally down to policing and justice agencies that are beyond our control.”
“On the first of your two supplementary questions, frankly, it is not my job to direct where the Chief Constable deploys resources. That is a matter for him and him alone. With regard to neighbourhood teams, you will have to ask him where he is going to put his resources. However, I will work with him to ensure that the police are properly resourced, and I have made that case strongly today. <BR /> <BR />The work that we do in rural and urban areas is cross-cutting. It involves people from the Department for Communities, the Housing Executive and others. In the case of rural crime, it also involves the Ulster Farmers' Union, National Farmers' Union Mutual, young farmers' clubs and lots of other organisations that have a contribution to make in that space.”
“<BR /> <BR />We led a multi-agency, cross-departmental review of antisocial behaviour legislation that considered nine areas of potential change. The policy responsibility for those areas fell across the Department of Justice, the Department for Communities and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. On foot of that review and having identified four areas where legislative change may prove to be beneficial, my Department, together with the Department for Communities, launched a joint public consultation on proposals to amend legislation with a view to ensuring that the relevant authorities have effective and proportionate powers to tackle ASB and its effects on our community. We are analysing the responses, and policy options will be developed for consideration.”
“With your permission, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, I will answer questions 5 and 11 together. I recognise that antisocial behaviour (ASB) in not only rural communities but any community can be a source of great anxiety and suffering to those who are affected. It is rare for community safety issues such as antisocial behaviour to be resolved by the criminal justice system alone. ASB requires partnership working across all the relevant agencies together with local and central government, which has the levers to put in place joined-up, long-term solutions to prevent incidents arising and to tackle their impact. With that in mind, my Department is undertaking a number of different strands of work on a collaborative basis.”
“I believe that the Member tabled that as a substantive question to be asked later. However, there are real challenges with the size of the prison population. In March 2021, the total prison population was 1,401; on 1 March this year, it had risen to 1,879, which is an increase of 34%. Within that, about 36% of the population are unsentenced, so those prisoners are on remand. It is a real challenge, but we have already reopened two of the square houses that we closed when Davis House was built, and a third is being prepared for reuse. The frank reality is that, when we get to the end of that process, we will have no space left. We are working with others on a prisoner population oversight group to look at what we can do to better manage that population, but, ultimately, those who are remanded to our custody need to be housed.”
“This is an ongoing problem that we have had for some years, but we have no role in administering medication in the prisons. That role was handed over to the Department of Health and the South Eastern Trust a number of years ago. We are trying to refine the protocols so that conversations can take place between people in the Prison Service and the health service. That is important not just where prescription medication is concerned but when people have complex needs, which is increasingly a feature of the prison population. That has to be managed very carefully where an individual prisoner's data protection and privacy are concerned, which can create real complexities in how we are able to respond to those issues.”
“As I said, people are kept in the care and supervision unit until such time as they have passed the item that has been secreted inside them or have otherwise disposed of it. The Prison Service has no authority to remove items from inside a person, so it is a matter of the person being monitored until the scans are clear. The alternative would be to put that person back into the prison population and potentially allow them to take contraband into the prison system, which would cause more disruption and harm to other prisoners.”
“The Northern Ireland Prison Service also notifies the healthcare in prisons teams from the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust when a prisoner gives a positive indication from a scan in case there are any health concerns that need to be monitored and addressed.”
“X-ray body scanner technology was introduced in prisons in Northern Ireland in March and April 2023. Females, staff and visitors are not scanned, in line with the use of the technology in England and Wales. Since their introduction, there has been a marked reduction in the trafficking of drugs and other illicit substances into prisons, which means that those who work and live in prisons are safer. A positive indication from a scan is likely to result in restriction of association under prison rule 32. That allows prison staff to monitor the prisoner and for rescans to be completed until the risk of secreted items to the individual and the prison population at large can be mitigated.”
“I have not written to my Irish counterpart on that matter. I was due to meet her a number of weeks ago, but, unfortunately, that meeting could not take place. I hope to be able to raise it with her when I next meet her.”
“The issue of PII certificates is not a matter for the Department of Justice; they lie within the reserved domain of security. However, I believe that there will be many families, as a result of the legacy Act or other issues that have arisen in recent weeks, who will not be able to get the inquest that they wished and expected. Those families deserve to be treated with more respect and dignity than is currently the case. They should be able to access truth and justice in their cases.”
“Currently, there is limited information available on how the ICRIR will deliver its role, so it is difficult to know what the costs associated with DOJ matters will be. There may be additional costs for justice organisations in servicing the ICRIR and dealing with matters that are not caught by the Act's provisions, but there is also the wider issue of being able to handle the data and other sensitive issues that would need to be passed across to the ICRIR so that it can take forward its investigations. <BR /> <BR />The legacy Act was not supported by Executive parties. It remains a UK Government policy change, so the costs associated with the outworking of that policy should, I believe, fall to other than the Executive.”
“— that the legislation passed in Westminster. It has caused huge problems for the justice system.”
“<BR /> <BR />It remains a matter of real regret to me —”
“Therefore, I have written to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland seeking confirmation, as a matter of urgency, of the costs that may arise, especially for the 2024-25 financial year and the funding arrangements for them. I have also made him aware that, while the Act will shut down a number of investigations and future civil claims, there will be a continuing resource burden on justice organisations in relation to remaining legacy cases not caught by the Act's provisions, including inquests and other investigations that fall outside of the time frame of the Act, as well as several hundred civil cases that predate the legislation. There are therefore likely to be additional costs for justice originations for as long as they are expected to service the commission and continue to deal with outstanding legacy cases.”
“The judgement included declarations that a number of the Act's provisions, including those relating to immunity from prosecution, are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and should be disapplied. It also concluded that the ICRIR is capable of carrying out investigations that are compliant with articles 2 and 3 convention rights. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has said that he remains committed to implementing the new commission. However, there remains a lack of clarity on what the operating model for the new commission will be; how it will interface with justice organisations; what the costs associated with that work will be; and how those costs will be funded.”
“The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 will end investigations by the PSNI or the Police Ombudsman as well as inquests that are not yet at the final determination stage in respect of Troubles-related incidents. The Act also prevents new civil claims from being brought forward from 17 May 2023. Instead, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) will review deaths and/or other harmful conduct during the Troubles period. <BR /> <BR />There continues to be considerable legal uncertainty around the new arrangements following the judgement handed down by the High Court on 28 February, which is being appealed by the UK Government.”
“We are now in a situation where we are discussing whether we want to have a justice system that is capable of delivering for people in terms of public safety, the preservation of life and the delivery of justice or whether we are willing to continue to asset-strip it and not allow it to continue.”
“That is absolutely essential. My Department has seen a 3% uplift since devolution in comparison with a 68% uplift in the same year for the Department of Health and, I think, a 43% uplift for the Department of Education. We are talking about significant differentials, and, unfortunately, while we have been effective at doing more and more with less and less, there comes a point when that is no longer possible. Where we make savings in the Department of Justice now, they are not savings; they simply push up costs for others parts of the justice system. We have gone beyond the stage of being able to simply discuss efficiencies, which I am always keen to do.”
“The process to arrive at a final resolution of that matter is still ongoing. Obviously, it is in all of our interests to resolve that as swiftly as possible. There will, undoubtedly, be financial pressures as a result of that.”
“That is, indeed, a stretch. However, I am looking at the terms of reference of the review. I spoke to the chair and vice chair of the Policing Board recently and agreed that, with the return of devolution, it is for the Department of Justice to take forward that review. We are finalising the options around that.”
“I look forward to members of the Policing Board and others in the Chamber giving us their full support on that.”
“I am aware of the challenges, but I cannot give reassurance on recurrence because it is simply not in my gift to do so. What may be possible will depend on the ongoing negotiations between the Minister of Finance and the Treasury. While I would be keen to see that money added to my budget next year so we can give that reassurance, I am not in a position to do that this year. However, in the interests of stabilising the workforce, which is critical, I believed that it was important that we moved on the pay even though it creates an unmet need in our finances next year, because, as I said at the beginning, we cannot have a decent police service unless we pay the staff and our police officers a reasonable salary. However, that will raise challenges for us next year due to the pressures on the DOJ budget.”