Debate contribution: Speeding Up Justice
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 9 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Speeding Up Justice
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5601793
Read the official Assembly record
Text
There is a clear need to reform and modernise the justice system. Along with justice partners, I have prioritised the speeding up justice programme of work, which is delivered across five key projects. The first project is on out-of-court disposals, where plans are in place to bring forward secondary legislation to let police deal with more low-level offences using penalty notices. That will divert suitable cases from the courts and free up resources for more serious crime. The second project is on committal reform. Work is progressing on direct committal, which I intend to implement later this year. That will help the most serious cases reach the Crown Court more quickly. The third project, on early engagement, is exploring earlier engagement between police, prosecution and defence to move cases through the system more quickly. The focus is on better file quality, timeliness and reviewing?'Better Case Management'?procedures. Those projects are still in pilot phase but are showing early signs of improvement. The fourth project, on the remit of the Magistrates' Court, is considering options to expand Magistrates' Court jurisdiction. Finally, the project on digital, which supports all the speeding up justice projects, is implementing digital initiatives to help to embed reform and support long-term sustainability. Taken together, these reforms are intended to reduce avoidable delay, improve the use of criminal justice resources and ensure that court capacity is focused on the most serious cases. The pace of delivery will, however, remain closely linked to the resources that are available to support implementation. Published Northern Ireland case processing statistics show a slight improvement between 2023-24 and 2024-25, with the median time for criminal cases across all courts falling from 190 to 189 days.?That is also down considerably from the height of 226 days in 2021-22.?That has been driven mainly by quicker processing times in the Magistrates' Court. In the Crown Court, charged cases have improved slightly, but case processing times for cases proceeding by way of summons remain long. The Criminal Bar Association action has had a significant impact on the Crown Court and may impact on the pace at which those reform initiatives can be implemented fully.
356 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.84).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.84 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:50 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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