Topical question AQT 875/22-27

Topical question by Mr Gerry Carroll on 13 January 2025.

MLA: Mr Gerry Carroll
Party at the time: People Before Profit Alliance
Date: 13 January 2025
Type: Topical question
Assembly reference: AQT 875/22-27
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4738215

Text

Mr Carroll asked the Minister of Justice whether, given that it was revealed in an answer to a question for written answer that some 10,000 people were prosecuted for the personal possession of cannabis over the past five years, that is an adequate and good use of Department of Justice resources.

51 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:

13 January 2025 – Minister, I appreciate the answer and the fact that this is a reserved matter, but I will come back to you on some of…

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: 0.05 (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 (0.91).
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	0.01	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.04	No
Controversy escalation	0.04	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.91	Yes
Overall judgement	0.05	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	0.95
Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues	0.05
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 11:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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