Debate contribution: Encompass: Update
Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on .
- MLA
- Mr Mike Nesbitt
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 17 June 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Encompass: Update
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5013845
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I see that as being part of the next phase. As has been said, £360 million is a lot of money. To roll out Encompass fully across primary care is beyond our financial reach. I say to the Member, however, that the next thing that I want to see is e-prescriptions. I want to see GPs being able to prescribe over the internet. I take five tablets every day. I go to my chemist, and the pharmacists tell me that they have to walk up the hill to the GP practice, physically collect the docket, come back and process it. If we were able to do such things electronically in primary care — GP surgeries and pharmacies — it would be transformational. Yet, I am told that it will be 2032 — seven more years — before that will happen. That does not equate with my seeking urgency in healthcare delivery and asking how we are doing things at pace. Although Mr Dickson validly points out that there is an issue that needs to be addressed, the one that I really want to address next is electronic prescriptions.
188 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 (0.93).
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.93 | 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 | 0.70 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.30 |
| 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 12:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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