Debate contribution: Justice Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 15 June 2026.

MLA: Mr Paul Givan
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 15 June 2026
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Justice Bill: Consideration Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5615012

Text

I appreciate the Member giving way. I have my name down to speak in the debate on this group of amendments, and I will do so later. I rise to make the point to the Member, and others, that, on this occasion, they regard the petition of concern as something that is frustrating the will of the Assembly. I remind the SDLP that you signed a petition of concern to prevent the sanctioning of Gerry Kelly by the Standards and Privileges Committee when he climbed on the bonnet of a police vehicle. You and your party signed the petition of concern to prevent that. We will not be lectured by the SDLP or others on the POC.

117 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Uncertain: weak signal

Uncertain: this record is published but not counted in any total.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.62 (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).
No identity-based framing was identified (0.87).
The answers did not meet either automatic 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

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.39	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.09	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.04	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.29	No
Controversy escalation	0.57	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.06	No
Overall judgement	0.62	Between thresholds

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	0.87
Reports or questions it	0.02
Criticises or condemns it	0.01
Adopts it	0.10

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
No identity-related subject	0.48
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.27
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.12
Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty	0.11
Another identity-related subject	0.02

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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