Debate contribution: Policing Resources

Debate contribution by Mr Stewart Dickson on 9 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Stewart Dickson

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

9 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Policing Resources

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4511652

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Northern Ireland has come a great distance since the Good Friday Agreement. An integral part of that process has been the foundation structures put in place regarding our devolved governance and, particularly, our ability to determine and legislate for ourselves and determine our future. A signal step forward in that process was the devolution of policing and justice. We are all aware that protocols are in place, and nowhere are they more sensitive and important than in policing. There is clear guidance and rules that Departments and Ministers must follow, for good reason, and Members of the House would be the first to criticise if they were breached. No one is more alert to those rules or, indeed, sympathetic to the Chief Constable's concerns than the Justice Minister. She has repeatedly raised the issues with Executive colleagues, the Justice Committee, successive Secretaries of State and Prime Ministers. The systematic raiding of DOJ's coffers, which, in turn, has depleted the PSNI, over the last eight years is the reason why the crisis is here. Other parties that have been in the Executive over that time must take their share of responsibility for the current situation in which justice and policing now finds itself. The Chief Constable is, of course, free to speak with whomever he chooses. However, the mechanisms for allocating funding, resources and accountability for the police and, indeed, for all arm's-length bodies are clearly set out in the rules and guidance and cannot be circumvented. The Executive will ultimately decide and determine where additional resources are allocated, and, for them, the case for additional funding must be made. On more than one occasion, successive permanent secretaries in DOJ have reminded this Chief Constable of those rules. The role of the accounting officer has been framed in the most recent letter as an attempt to chastise or gag the Chief Constable by one permanent secretary. That is disingenuous and seeks to sensationalise the routine business of a Department and, most importantly, the responsibility of an accounting officer. It is sad and regrettable but not unsurprising that the correspondence was leaked. Now, it must become a theatrical performance being played out in public and in the Chamber, rather than a genuine attempt to recognise the serious funding situation in which successive Executives have put the DOJ and the PSNI.

I note that the motion frames the letter as an attempt to embarrass. The letter was a private communication. The leaking of the letter was the attempt to embarrass and score cheap political points. We all agree that the PSNI needs additional funding. The Minister has reiterated that on numerous occasions, not just in the House but in her actions and correspondence. The issue of the amount of money that is allocated to DOJ, which, in turn, funds the PSNI, has been raised continually by the Minister, me, as my party's justice spokesperson, and my party colleagues in the Assembly Chamber. When debating the Budget in April, Minister Long outlined the challenges that the Justice Department has: our high prison population and our low police officer numbers, coupled with a forecasted 30% increase in legal aid payments. When you make the comparison with other Departments, such as Health and Education, both of which have had budgetary increases of 70% and 45% respectively over the past 12 years, and consider that the DOJ budget has increased by only — let this sink in — 3% in the same period, you have to conclude that those parties that absconded from the institutions of government bear the ultimate responsibility for the current situation in which we find ourselves. Our current budget situation has been brought about by 14 years of Tory rule, stripping public services, including the police, to the bare bone, coupled with the gross failure of those parties that brought this place down on more than one occasion. Services and budgets take time to rebuild, and the Chief Constable is well within his rights to ask for more to deliver. The Minister and her Department are working with the Chief Constable and the PSNI to make the case for increased funding. Indeed, as recently as last Thursday, the Chief Constable said that he wished to draw a line under the matter, yet some in the Chamber still want to make mischief. The Minister has continued to push the Executive and raised all those issues with the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State. We will see what their Budget produces and whether they will keep their promises. A more realistic focus for a motion might be to call on the Executive to support a plan for the PSNI recovery that the Minister of Justice is working on. It is regrettable that Members have chosen today to focus on political point-scoring rather than practical solutions.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:58 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification