Debate contribution: Enabling Access to Justice Reform Programme: Update
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 3 February 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Enabling Access to Justice Reform Programme: Update
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4774231
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Work has progressed at pace since I announced the programme on 2 December, and I have now published the programme delivery plan for consultation. The consultation will be critical in ensuring that we examine issues in the right order and properly take account of interconnectivities. I have been clear, however, that we do not have the luxury of time if we are to deliver the system that our citizens deserve, and I intend to make progress wherever possible while the consultation is ongoing. That includes steps to give effect to an uplift in fees for publicly funded advice and representation, the consultation on which also launched last week. I have prioritised that work to ensure the continued viability and stability of the system, but other actions will follow and follow quickly. I am conscious that each set of proposals in the plan will require detailed engagement and supporting legislative and administrative frameworks, so we cannot delay the realisation of the benefits if we are to seize the opportunity that the reform programme presents to ensure a fairer, more accessible, proportionate, responsive and cost-effective system that places the citizen at its heart.
191 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: 0.02 (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 (0.67).
- 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
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.67 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | 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 |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:52 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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