Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 12 May 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Ending Violence Against Women and Girls
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4937490
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Member will be aware of the UK-US trade agreement that was announced last week. We are working through the details of that. Many people will be pleased to see that that rumoured aspect did not feature. The Member will also be aware that, for many years, my colleagues and I have advocated stronger protections for women, in particular. In recent months, we have seen threats towards and abuse of public representatives — men and women — across the House. We have raised the fact that there is a particular issue, as recognised by a number of reports, for women. With the incident that I mentioned — I know that many of us get a significant amount of abuse — where a specific threat of death was communicated via online communications, I am glad that the legislation was there. That is a good demonstration that the Online Safety Act can and will be used to successfully prosecute, and we await sentencing. It is incredibly important that the courts take these matters seriously. It is an issue that unites all of us: we stand shoulder to shoulder to say that it is absolutely wrong that there is abuse of, and threats and violence towards, any public person, never mind an elected representative, who is simply trying to do their job.
219 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: 0.06 (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 (0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.67).
- Subject area: Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups.
- 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 | 0.09 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.06 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.60 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.06 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.67 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.33 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.67 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.33 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:22 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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