All of Mrs Naomi Long’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not flagged, uncertain or not yet analysed.
Organisations across all regions of Northern Ireland have benefited from the support provided through the scheme. The initiatives have wide-ranging impacts, as I have set out, and offer vital assistance to men, women and children who are affected by domestic and sexual abuse. The scheme has enabled some front-line…
Following publication of the new seven-year domestic and sexual abuse strategy in September 2025, the Health Minister and I launched a small grants scheme that offered voluntary and community sector organisations the opportunity to apply for funding to support new ideas and initiatives that aligned with the key…
When the Northern Ireland Audit Office looks at any organisation, it is important that we take time to learn the lessons from its report. I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General and her staff for the report. The Northern Ireland Policing Board is, as you say, responsible for securing the maintenance of an…
There are a couple of things in that. First, they are not operational matters for the PSNI; they are funding issues, which are within my bailiwick. If Members ask the right questions, they will get fulsome answers on any occasion. I am more than happy to give fulsome answers where it is within my vires to do so. The…
As we have an annual Budget, we review the funding allocations every year. That happens on an ongoing basis. If you look at the allocations that have already been made to PSNI, you will see that, of the £132·3 million of additional allocations to my Department, PSNI has received just over £86 million. That is 65% of…
On staffing, there is the business case that I have referred to. I am absolutely committed to seeing the PSNI increase its numbers of officers and staff so that it can conduct the work on behalf of the public that needs to be done. However, it is not just for me to make that commitment: it requires every party in the…
As the Member will be aware, there are a number of arrangements to manage offenders. The multi-agency risk assessment conferencing (MARAC) process, which is for protection, is under review. An intensive piece of work is happening on that. We then have PPANI, in which the PSNI is one of the key agencies, but not the…
To be clear, the Department of Justice did not allow a gap to open up in funding or in numbers. The PSNI took decisions, for example, not to recruit police officers to replace those who had left. That decision was taken by the PSNI, not imposed upon it by the finances. That has had a knock-on effect, with a…
The Member is, of course, right to say that, of all police duties, that of keeping our children, in particular, safe from predatory adults is key. One of the challenges that the PSNI and other parts of the justice system face is that, whilst crime rates remain relatively low in Northern Ireland, the complexity of…
I thank the Member for what I think is a very helpful intervention. There are real challenges that the PSNI faces, and those will also be faced by other constabularies right across the UK, particularly now that the British Government's spending trajectory on public services is heading for decline. That is a really…
At the outset, I thank His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services for its thorough inspection, as well as the PSNI officers and staff, whose professionalism and dedication were rightly acknowledged in the report. The inspection report highlights operational challenges for both the PSNI and…
Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to take some time, at the commencement of today's sitting, to reflect on and pay tribute to His Holiness Pope Francis after his recent passing. There are few world leaders who can truly be said to transcend national boundaries. However, as the temporal head of the…
I thank the Member for his question. I was fortunate last week, as were a number of other Members in the Chamber, to be present at Walkway Community Centre for an event on violence against women and girls. I was asked quite a similar question, and I suppose that I gave three Ss. The first is sentencing. Whilst we have…
The use of stop-and-search is entirely an operational matter for the Chief Constable, and it is one on which he is answerable to the Policing Board. It is not part of the strategic framework for policing in Northern Ireland, nor is it part of the long-term objectives. We all recognise that there are, of course,…
When you look at figures such as those, it is easy to make presumptions about why they are as they are. We know, for example — the Member is very vocal on this — that offending behaviours are often linked to deprivation. We also know that many parts of the community that are nominally Catholic tend to have higher…
As the member will know, Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI), in its recent inspection report on policing, raised the issue of the abstraction of neighbourhood officers from their routine duties in communities in order to take on other roles at key times. That is an almost inevitable consequence of…
I am happy to meet the Member to discuss any specific issues in the east Belfast area. I am conscious that, across the city, there have been a number of disturbances at interfaces. Not all of those have been the normal interface disputes. Some have been due to roving gangs of young people who assemble around the…
I can. I visited Magilligan on Friday. The prison has created a native tree nursery. It is nationally important for biosecurity, as it is only the second such location on the island of Ireland to grow native trees. They have planted and nurtured 40,000 native tree saplings — everything from Scots pine to oak, chestnut…
The Prison Service has demonstrated a real commitment to delivering on a wide range of sustainability and climate initiatives. It has progressed a wide range of energy-efficiency measures over a number of years that has seen it reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by an impressive 44% from a 2016 baseline. That has…
I can give the Member my assurance that no sensitive information has been able to be accessed at any time. I can give that assurance not because I am assured about access to the building but because I am assured about access to the information, how it is held within the building and how it has been secured. We are…
There have been a number of such incidents, including unauthorised access to Dundonald House, which began on Sunday 16 March. The apparent intent has been to create social media content about the building and its environs. However, the individuals concerned have also engaged in destructive and antisocial behaviour.…
It is entirely appropriate that we use whatever evidence we have from any reports that we have developed. That is a given. However, as I said to the Member, I do not have a publication date, so I will have to respond to him in writing.