Member's statement: Domestic and Sexual Violence: Legislation
Member's statement by Mr Paul Frew on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Frew
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 24 September 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Domestic and Sexual Violence: Legislation
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4644750
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise to, first of all, thank the Assembly for the progress that it has made over the past number of years on legislation to deal with and counter domestic and sexual violence. I have amended many of those pieces of legislation myself. I am grateful to the House for its support in that, but there are still many aspects of domestic and sexual violence and stalking that we have to deal with and combat. One that I want to highlight today is the fact that, when a victim has to flee their home, they leave behind, sometimes within a matter of minutes, all their possessions — all their belongings. When the time comes that they can pick up the pieces of their lives and the trauma that they have gone through, they find that, when they get a new home, they cannot get those possessions. Usually that is due to the fear of going back to the home. Sometimes it is due to there being a non-molestation order in place — as simple as that. Those victims flee the home and leave all their furniture, storage space and clothes behind. It is very difficult for victims of domestic violence to start anew and afresh when they have nothing but the clothes on their back.
The House and the Department of Justice need to consider further legislation to protect victims of domestic violence so that there are no barriers for victims who flee the actions that they live with every day.
251 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: 0.03 (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 (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- 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 | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | 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 |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.71 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.23 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.06 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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