Debate contribution: Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation on Criminal Justice Matters

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 14 May 2024.

MLA

Mrs Naomi Long

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

14 May 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statements

Heading

Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation on Criminal Justice Matters

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4489603

Read the official Assembly record

Text

With permission, Mr Speaker, I wish to make a statement regarding a bilateral meeting under the auspices of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) on cooperation on criminal justice matters, which was held virtually on Wednesday 11 April 2024. I represented the Executive at the bilateral meeting with Minister Helen McEntee, the Minister of Justice in Ireland. I am committed to keeping the Assembly informed of the important work being carried out under the auspices of the IGA. Cross-border cooperation on justice matters is vital to both of our jurisdictions. It is always a welcome opportunity to meet our Irish Government counterparts so that we can discuss the range of cross-border initiatives and share learning on issues affecting both jurisdictions. The IGA contributes greatly to ensuring that we are doing everything that we can to promote good practice in those areas.

The meeting on 11 April provided Minister McEntee and I with the opportunity to review progress against and close the IGA’s 2021-23 joint work plan and to agree the new work plan for 2023-25. The development and enhancement of cooperation under the agreement is taken forward by a number of project advisory groups, covering the areas of public protection, forensic science, youth justice, victims’ issues and criminal justice and social diversity issues. I put on record my thanks to all the members of the five project advisory groups, who have continued to deliver on a wide range of extremely important issues. I will provide Members with a summary of some of the key highlights of the work that was completed under the previous work programme and provide a flavour of some of the issues that the IGA project advisory groups will be focusing on during the next reporting period. The support for victims project advisory group continues to meet biannually to share information on victim strategies, new legislation and the implementation of recommendations flowing from the Gillen and O’Malley reviews. In particular, that project advisory group has a special interest in ongoing work to address domestic abuse, sexual violence and human trafficking. In addition to regular engagement on general victim policy issues, as part of its work in the 2023-25 work plan, the support for victims project advisory group will continue to share experiences and learning from recent awareness-raising work to highlight victims’ rights, and there will also be a specific bilateral event in relation to domestic homicide reviews. The group is also planning to hold a bilateral online seminar, led by the Justice Ministers, to share experience, learning and best practice in relation to pilots and programmes that have been established from the O’Malley and Gillen reviews to support victims in the criminal justice system. Excellent working relationships are in place between Forensic Science Northern Ireland and Forensic Science Ireland. The forensic science project advisory group provides a mechanism to strengthen these arrangements.

In the 2021-23 reporting period, the group undertook regular meetings to share information and best practice on a range of forensic science issues, including toxicology and fingerprint analysis. Later this year, as part of the 2023-25 work plan, Forensic Science Northern Ireland will host a continuing professional development (CPD) event for all toxicology providers in Northern Ireland and Ireland. That builds on the success of a similar event held in Dublin last year and provides a forum for information exchange on current scientific processes and developments.

During the 2021-23 reporting period, the criminal justice and social diversity project advisory group attended a cross-border conference in Monaghan. The conference brought together operational and community police officers from the PSNI and an Garda Síochána (AGS) border areas and provided an opportunity to agree a plan of action to increase knowledge and awareness of organised crime and crime prevention as well as a forum in which to discuss challenges and learning on asylum seekers entering both jurisdictions in specific regions and policing districts. Legislative progress on hate crime is at different stages in each jurisdiction. The project advisory group is therefore currently focusing on sharing good practice in relation to various challenges and the impacts, for example, of far-right influence on incidents and crimes with a hate motivation. During the 2023-25 reporting period, the criminal justice and social diversity project advisory group has plans in place to attend respective community-focused events, including but not limited to the following communities highlighted in the work plan: minority ethnic communities; the Travelling community; LGBTQ+ communities; persons with disabilities; and refugees and asylum seekers. During the 2021-23 reporting period, the public protection project advisory group held a number of seminars and meetings on a range of topics, including the police response to domestic violence. The group also held information sessions to develop knowledge and to improve systems for effective public protection arrangements. The annual seminar is a highlight in the public protection work plan and provides a valuable opportunity for the criminal justice agencies, policymakers and practitioners to come together to enhance cooperation and further develop capability and learning from one another in areas of mutual interest. The fourteenth annual cross-border public protection advisory group seminar was held in Belfast at Ulster University on 1 December 2023. The seminar theme was "Opportunities and challenges for delivering criminal justice in a changing environment". The attendees considered new and innovative practice and explored ways in which to further develop and increase partnership working. Formal arrangements between the Probation Service and the Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) for the management of offenders moving between jurisdictions was revised and signed off by both services in March 2022. The 'Irish Probation Journal' has reached a special milestone this year, and, to mark it, the twenty-first edition of the journal will feature a range of articles that have been published over the past 20 years that chart the trends in criminal justice and tell the story of how probation practice has developed as a result of evidence-based research. The collective publications provide a historical record of the development of probation practice on this island. The twenty-first edition of the journal will be launched in November 2024. The youth justice project advisory group offers the opportunity to share experiences of and lessons learned on strategy and policy. During the 2021-23 reporting period, a number of visits and exchanges took place, including senior staff from Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre visiting Oberstown and cross-border visits between the Donegal Youth Diversion Project and an Garda Síochána and the Youth Justice Agency of Northern Ireland. The group also supported a successful joint bid to the Shared Island initiative from the University of Limerick and Queen's University Belfast for the creation of a North/South research hub on youth justice called Stable Lives Safer Streets. The youth justice project advisory group will continue to develop areas of policy and practical cooperation through visits and information sharing and, where appropriate, adopt learning from the North/South research hub. It is encouraging to see tangible outputs in the 2021-23 work plan, the activities planned under the 2023-25 work plan and the positive engagement that continues across all the project advisory groups. I take the opportunity to update Members on the joint agency task force (JATF), which was instituted under the Fresh Start Agreement. The task force is led by senior officers from the PSNI, an Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners and HM Revenue and Customs. At the meeting, senior officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland and an Garda Síochána provided an update on the cross-border joint agency task force report, which covers the period from 1 April to 30 September 2023. There continue to be high levels of cooperation and operational activity among the various law enforcement agencies involved in tackling the six priority areas: rural crime; drugs; financial crime; trafficking in human beings, including children; excise fraud; and organised immigration crime. The rural crime priority area continues to focus resources on tackling mobile organised crime gangs through ongoing collaboration and dedicated days of action. In June 2023, an Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland took part in a highly visible cross-border operation targeting criminal activity in the south Armagh, Newry, Monaghan and Dundalk border areas. The operation consisted of checkpoints and the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology, with a view to targeting vehicles and persons associated with criminality, specifically those involved in a number of commercial and domestic burglaries that had taken place around that time. As a result of the operation, a 34-year-old male was arrested on suspicion of a number of offences, including theft and GBH. The Police Service of Northern Ireland’s organised crime branch and Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau continue to work closely in tackling exploitation of the common travel area by organised crime gangs involved in the large-scale importation and distribution of class A and B drugs. The consistent collaborative engagement has resulted in increased detection at ports in both jurisdictions, revealing the highly sophisticated concealment methods being used by organised crime gangs to import, in particular, class A drugs. In September 2023, following liaison between an Garda Síochána, the joint agency task force and international partners, a bulk carrier travelling from South America was intercepted. That action culminated in the seizure of 2·2 tons of cocaine. Investigative enquiries conducted by the PSNI organised crime branch assisted with the arrest and prosecution of eight males. An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have carried out various joint days of action in the crime areas of human trafficking, sexual exploitation and organised prostitution. Due to the international aspect of human trafficking, the two police forces are constantly collaborating on emerging trends and adapting to the changing environments that exist. During this reporting period, the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s modern slavery and human trafficking unit and an Garda Síochána's human trafficking investigation and coordination unit have respectively recorded 225 and 18 persons who presented as potential victims of human trafficking. Detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s modern slavery and human trafficking unit carried out a significant operation on the activities of an organised crime gang suspected of being involved in the trafficking of young women into Northern Ireland for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The operation resulted in the arrest of two males and one female for sexual exploitation, prostitution and money laundering related to those offences. The investigation is ongoing, but it is believed that the organised crime gang operated by enticing young Romanian women, often from deprived backgrounds, to travel to Northern Ireland with the false promise of employment in a commercial setting. The grim reality awaiting the victims was a world of prostitution and sexual exploitation. His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Irish Office of the Revenue Commissioners continue to play a key role in targeting the individuals and organised crime gangs responsible for excise fraud in both jurisdictions. Ongoing operations are being pursued on both sides of the border, specifically in relation to tobacco-, oil- and alcohol-related offences, with many successful outcomes recorded during the reporting period. One collaborative investigation resulted in the identification of a suspect consignment at Dublin Port in June 2023. The consignment was seized by Revenue Commissioners at an address in County Monaghan, resulting in the discovery of 10·4 million illicit cigarettes, worth approximately €8·2 million. Organised immigration crime remains a cause for concern for all law enforcement agencies across the common travel area. That area is not devolved and is led by Home Office immigration enforcement and an Garda Síochána. Multi-agency collaboration continues to play a role in proactive and investigative responses, with strong emphasis being placed on sharing information and intelligence to disrupt organised crime gangs that are focused on exploiting vulnerabilities in that priority crime area. There were a number of operational successes during this reporting period, including the dismantling of organised crime gangs involved in the smuggling of migrants into the UK and Ireland. The joint agency task force is adding value and producing results through that continued collaboration. I am pleased to be able to report such positive results to my Assembly colleagues. The IGA mechanism continues to deliver effective cooperation between our respective law enforcement agencies. I am committed to maintaining that excellent level of criminal justice cooperation with Ireland, which is in the best interest of our respective communities.

No.

The idea behind that justice research hub is to provide background information on vulnerabilities that could lead young people into offending behaviour and how best those vulnerabilities can be avoided. That research continues, and, at the end of the project, it will feed into the work that we do, particularly our work on preventing offending amongst young people. It will not, however, be a matter for just the Departments of Justice in the North and South; it will be a matter for other Departments, because many of the interventions that prevent our young people from getting involved with the justice system come from outside the justice sector.

The Member will have to be more specific about which blind spots he is referring to, but I am happy to share a copy of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with him, so that he has it to peruse at his leisure.

The main role of the IGA is to provide a strategic framework for operational partners to engage within. For example, I am answerable for the work that is done by Forensic Science Northern Ireland and others. We would be directly involved in trying to set out that strategic cooperation to ensure that, where there is best practice and good learning, we benefit from it on a cross-jurisdictional basis. At the operational level in Northern Ireland, oversight is provided by the Policing Board, so the operational matters that are referred to in this report for completeness are overseen by the Policing Board through regular reports from the JATF and, indeed, from the other organised crime task force in the PSNI.

That matter was not discussed as part of the IGA. The specific issues that we deal with through the IGA are circumscribed by the list of headings that I read out. We are aware, however, that that happens across these islands and is not unique to Northern Ireland, far from it, in fact. It is quite common and is, for example, more common in other parts of the UK.

There is already considerable cross-border operational cooperation around the management of sex offenders. One of the most talked about loopholes is the ability of sex offenders to change their name. We are taking advice on that at the moment, including advice on how to include that in future legislation for the Assembly to consider, which would increase the notice periods and the monitoring periods that need to be given for someone who chooses to change their name and outlines which documents they can or cannot change their name on, for what purposes they can use a changed name and what the declaration and monitoring arrangements are.

All those issues are under active consideration, but they do not form part of the MOU, which is about operational-level cooperation.

I would like to prioritise that and to start to reverse the numbers of road deaths within my remit. One of the issues in the sentencing Bill, which I hope to bring forward next year, will be to increase the penalties for some of those most serious road offences, particularly those that cause death and serious injury. That will go through the Committee processes. There is cooperation on road traffic matters in the work of AGS and the PSNI more generally, particularly in monitoring and coordination. That was not discussed at the IGA meeting, because we were very much focused on the report of business from the previous strategy and on the agreement of the strategy going forward.

The Prison Service has a long history of working with the Irish Prison Service. There has been quite a strong collaborative relationship. That was not reported on in this sitting of the IGA, but there has been joint learning on rehabilitation and on what is effective, particularly innovations in that and the work of the Probation Board where it reaches within the prison walls for rehabilitation and challenge. Those are all matters for joint consideration of options for collaboration and improvement.

There are a number of threads in rural crime, but the parts that we focused on in particular at this IGA were those that I referred to in the statement that were on a spate of cross-border burglaries that caused particular consternation in border communities. There was a joint operation between the PSNI and AGS, which they reported on to the IGA and which I conveyed to you this morning. There are other opportunities, however, and I know that both police forces have also done considerable preventative work in rural communities, particularly where agricultural vehicles and buildings are concerned, and to try to enhance cooperation at the border so that simply crossing the border is not a means of escaping the law.

The joint agency task force was set up under Fresh Start, so it falls into a number of structures. Basically, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, HMRC, PSNI, AGS and, where appropriate, the Home Office and Immigration Enforcement are involved in the joint agency task force's different work streams. The task force meets routinely twice a year, but it will often meet more frequently when it is particularly busy at an operational level so that it can ensure that it is able to address whatever challenges it is facing.

First, I associate myself with the Member's remarks about those families who are still grieving, many years after those horrific incidents. Legacy issues do not form part of the IGA, the terms of which are set out clearly in a memorandum of understanding. As a party leader, I have regular conversations with the Irish Government outside that structure, but, today, I am here to report solely on the structures of the IGA.

The Irish Probation Service and the Probation Board for Northern Ireland can share information in a number of areas. We hope to enhance that work further, particularly on public protection. Areas that are highlighted for priority in 2023-25 include cooperating on knowledge-sharing; collaborative engagement on topical, new and emerging issues in criminal justice; strengthening collaboration in the development of interventions to enhance public protection and address offending in agreed areas across agencies on a cross-border basis; and taking forward collaboration through initiatives with a focus on the border counties. There are a significant number of other recommendations that the Probation Board and, indeed, the wider public protection framework want to take forward in order to ensure that they are able to keep people safe and that the border is no impediment to the rule of law.

Hate crime legislation in the South was temporarily paused and will, I believe, be restarted at some point. It has been paused for over a year since its introduction. The Assembly was unable to bring forward hate crime legislation in the previous mandate due to time pressures. We face similar time pressures and finance pressures in this mandate, but it is a priority area for the Department's work. I am looking at two specific options for advancing hate crime legislation, and I want to consider them further. We settled on a model to do with statutory aggravators as the best way in which to deal with hate crime in Northern Ireland. In this mandate, there will be two opportunities when that may be advanced: one will be through the sentencing Bill and the other will be through the victims of crime Bill towards the end of the mandate. We are considering which is the best and most appropriate vehicle. The advantage of the sentencing Bill would be to bring things forward; the advantage of the victims Bill would be to contextualise hate crime in the provision for victims.

First, I will correct the Member's assertion that I hide. I am standing here in plain sight, answering questions on matters that are my departmental responsibility. I am not here to answer questions on matters that pertain to me as leader of the Alliance Party. If we want to introduce an "Ask the Leaders" debate in the Assembly, I am up for that too, but that is a matter for the Procedures Committee and for the Speaker, not for me. I am aware that I am the Justice Minister; that is one of the few accurate things that the Member said. On that basis, I am also well aware of my responsibilities. Today, I have set out clearly the issues on which I have engaged as part of the IGA process. The Member asked whether I had raised some of those issues more widely with the Irish Government, and if not, why not. I have raised some of the issues, albeit not necessarily in the terms that the Member raised them in the Chamber, but I have not raised them through the IGA because they do not pertain to my responsibilities in the IGA, which are the purpose of this statement.

Agreed.

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The conventions for a Minister answering questions on the Justice Department are well established. When policing and justice were devolved — policing was first; justice was second — structures were set up to ensure that there was no inappropriate interference in police operational matters. I updated the House on a meeting that took place. Therefore, in the context of an update on the meeting, I updated Members on the updates that I had received at the meeting. I answered a straight question from the Member, which was: would I answer questions on those issues in the future?

It is not for you to judge. You, with all due respect, are not in the Chair.

It was previously ruled that the Justice Minister does not routinely answer questions on matters that have other oversight structures in the political sphere. Mr Speaker has made it clear. Clearly, some Members do not want to accept that ruling.

3,681 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:22 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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