Topical question AQT 492/22-27

Topical question by Mrs Deborah Erskine on 9 September 2024.

MLA: Mrs Deborah Erskine
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 9 September 2024
Type: Topical question
Assembly reference: AQT 492/22-27
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4511557

Text

Mrs Erskine asked the Minister of Justice, given that she will know that morale in policing is at an all-time low, whether she has discussed that with the Chief Constable and, if so, what steps she is taking to build confidence between the police, her Department and the Assembly.

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

Follow-ups by the same MLA in the Chamber

These were assessed together with this record:

9 September 2024 – I thank the Minister for her answer. I have always supported policing, and I have always wanted to stand up for our…

Assessment

Not flagged

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: 0.04 (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 (0.90).
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

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	0.02	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.02	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.02	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.03	No
Controversy escalation	0.03	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.90	Yes
Overall judgement	0.04	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
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 area (top five)
Subject	Probability
No identity-related subject	0.99
Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies	0.01
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00
Parades, bonfires and commemorations	0.00
Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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