Debate contribution: Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation on Criminal Justice Matters

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 23 June 2025.

MLA

Mrs Naomi Long

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

23 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation on Criminal Justice Matters

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5045737

Read the official Assembly record

Text

With your permission, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a statement on a bilateral ministerial meeting held under the auspices of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) on cooperation on criminal justice matters that took place in Dublin on Wednesday 28 May 2025. I represented the Executive at the bilateral meeting with Minister Jim O'Callaghan, the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration in Ireland. It was the first IGA ministerial meeting attended by Minister O'Callaghan. It was a productive meeting that provided a welcome opportunity to reaffirm our shared commitment to enhancing practical criminal justice cooperation on the island. The meeting provided Minister O'Callaghan and me with an opportunity to review progress against the 2023-25 IGA joint work plan. We received updates from each project advisory group (PAG): public protection; support for victims; youth justice; forensic science; and criminal justice and social diversity. The IGA structure contributes to the promotion of good practice in each area. The project advisory groups have developed a range of cross-border initiatives and opportunities for information exchange and shared learning, and I thank all the members, who continue to develop and enhance our cooperation on those important issues. I will provide Members with a summary of the work that has been completed under the 2023-25 joint work plan. The public protection PAG has collaborated on a range of issues. Of particular note is the development of a shared criminal justice leadership programme that is designed to enhance working relationships, cross-agency collaboration and shared learning. The programme commenced in November 2024 and will be delivered across eight modules with 32 participants from criminal justice organisations in both jurisdictions. A special 21st anniversary edition of the 'Irish Probation Journal' was also published, reflecting on two decades of work, and preparation for the twenty-second edition is under way. Information exchange and engagement is ongoing and includes exchange on areas such as electronic monitoring, development of behaviour interventions and public protection arrangements. The support for victims PAG remains focused on improving services and experiences for victims and witnesses. Work continues on the alignment of the respective victim and witness charters. Additionally, bilateral exchanges have been used to share learning on the role of registered intermediaries. The exchanges have also covered human trafficking, with a particular focus on child sexual exploitation, and the introduction of the children's sexual offences legal advisers (CSOLA) scheme. Domestic violence remains a focus for the PAG, with regular information exchange. Counterparts in Ireland were particularly interested in the launch of the Power to Change campaign in Northern Ireland earlier this year. The youth justice PAG has focused on practical cooperation and shared learning between youth justice services. There have been reciprocal visits between youth justice agencies and further collaboration with the Donegal Youth Service. Of particular note during the most recent reporting period is the Stable Lives, Safer Streets initiative, a policy-led research hub funded through the Shared Island initiative and delivered by Queen's University Belfast and the University of Limerick. Minister O'Callaghan and I were privileged to hear from the committed academics who run the initiative, which combines top-down and bottom-up research to improve responses to youth crime, child criminal exploitation and community safety. A particular focus is being placed on child criminal exploitation, with evidence highlighting how many young people are manipulated and exploited into criminal activity through coercion or grooming. This collaborative and evidence-based work is already shaping the future direction of youth justice policy across both jurisdictions.

The completion of an important evaluation of children's diversion forums in Northern Ireland is further improving the Youth Justice Agency's approach to earlier-stage diversion, in partnership with others. The forensic science PAG has continued to focus on shared learning and practical information exchange, with regular engagement in areas such as handwriting, explosives and elemental glass analysis. The two agencies continue to share information on the new Forensic Science Ireland laboratory facilities in Backweston. That is particularly welcome while the Forensic Science Northern Ireland building project progresses. The recent European Academy of Forensic Science conference, which was hosted by Forensic Science Ireland, was held in May 2025 in Dublin. It was attended by both agencies and offered further opportunities for professional engagement. The criminal justice and social diversity PAG has progressed cross-border work on hate crime and community inclusion. The PSNI and an Garda Síochána have continued cross-border cooperation in conjunction with the Rio Ferdinand Foundation and have worked closely with the Traveller Mediation Service in border areas. That PAG continues to share learning on engagement with ethnic minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. The meeting also received an update on the work of the joint agency task force (JATF), which, as Members will be aware, was instituted under the Fresh Start Agreement and is led by senior officers from the PSNI, an Garda Síochána, HMRC and the Irish Revenue Commissioners. The strategic oversight group is obliged to provide a summary report to each IGA ministerial meeting. The most recent update covered the group's seventeenth and eighteenth reports, spanning April 2024 to March 2025. There continues to be high levels of cooperation and operational activity across the six priority areas: rural crime, drugs, financial crime, human trafficking, excise fraud and organised immigration crime. Notably, joint efforts have continued to target mobile organised crime gangs, resulting in the recovery of stolen property, drug seizures and burglary detections. A dedicated cross-border day of action on 6 March 2025 yielded positive operational results for both police services. Cross-border referral systems for trafficking cases, often from an early stage, have proven effective, particularly in relation to children. I acknowledge the task force's ongoing work in tackling threats in those priority areas. It is evident from the recent reports that the joint agency task force continues to be a highly effective model for tackling cross-border organised crime, with strong practical and strategic collaboration between law enforcement agencies delivering tangible results. Significant seizures of counterfeit cigarettes and illicit alcohol and the dismantling of fuel laundering operations highlight the ongoing work by HMRC and the Irish Revenue Commissioners. Meanwhile, close collaboration between the PSNI and the Garda Síochána national drugs and organised crime bureau has resulted in high-profile drug seizures of a value in excess of £20 million at airports and seaports. The task force has demonstrated its ability to disrupt organised criminality through intelligence-led enforcement and coordinated operations. Progress has also been made on financial crime, with long-running investigations advancing asset seizure and recovery. Those cases often involve complex civil and criminal litigation. The task force continues to prove itself as an effective vehicle for real-time intelligence sharing and enforcement coordination. Supporting that level of cooperation remains a priority, and I am pleased to update Members on its continued success. The IGA is an important forum, and the ongoing contribution of those involved is invaluable in ensuring progress across a broad range of issues, which, in turn, continues to improve justice outcomes across this island.

I thank the Member for his question. The Executive have discussed what learning we can take from the investigations that have been developed in the South. The Department of Justice, however, does not lead on clerical abuse. The Executive Office leads on that particular matter for the Executive. I have not directly raised that with my counterpart, but I know that the Executive Office is in constant contact with its counterpart in the South in order to ensure that there is a joined-up approach and that learning on one side will be carried through in order to inform the Executive's response.

It is not an either/or. We are trying to get the best outcome for victims and witnesses across the board. In this particular statement, I am focused on the meeting that we had through the IGA. It is important that there be a consistent approach. Those of you who were involved in the passage of the Justice Bill will know that people often become victims or witnesses because of crime that has a cross-border element, particularly those who live in border communities. It is important that the support for them is reasonably consistent, irrespective of where they seek that support. That is an important point to make. However, we also work with our colleagues in the Home Office. Indeed, I met recently with Minister Jess Phillips, the Minister with responsibility for safeguarding, to discuss how we can ensure that standards that apply, for example, in England also inform our discussions. I do not think that it has to be a choice between the two. We can try to get the best possible outcome for victims and witnesses, and that means being able to share and collaborate, irrespective of borders.

Under the auspices of the IGA, there are a restricted number of work streams, and, obviously, because telecommunications is a reserved matter, it does not form one of them. However, when we have been talking about the wider issues of integration in the community, we have, of course, touched on the influence of social media on people's attitudes and behaviours. Although, in Northern Ireland, we have quite limited powers when it comes to any change to the law, we do, of course, operate within the Home Office structures for dealing with the social media companies. It is an issue. Outside of the IGA structure itself, Minister O'Callaghan was in touch with me last week, concerned about what he could see, but also concerned about the potential for people either to travel to be part of disturbances or to be involved in disturbances in one jurisdiction and still manage to travel to be involved in later disturbances in other jurisdictions. It is also something that the PSNI has been liaising very closely with an Garda Síochána about, because clearly, when those things are being trailed on social media and when some young people find that their posts around violence are being monetised by some of the platforms, there is an incentive for people to get involved. It is important that we track that and monitor that behaviour to try to do work in the prevention space rather than simply the response space.

I have already mentioned that the joint agency task force continues to demonstrate really effective collaboration by the various law enforcement agencies. Over the reporting period, there were multiple joint operations with successful outcomes. For example, real-time collaboration between law enforcement on both sides of the border led to successful operations and investigations around drug seizures. In October 2024, a large quantity of cannabis with an estimated value of £8·5 million was recovered following an operation in Dublin, and four individuals were arrested and charged as a result. In March 2025, following searches conducted near Belfast, £6·5 million of drugs was seized and one individual was arrested. There have been many more successes of that kind. In December 2024, there was an increased focus on targeting cross-border organised retail crime in the run-up to Christmas. Both police services ran organised retail crime operations, which were incorporated into their Christmas road safety campaigns. Then, on 6 March, there was a dedicated cross-border day of action, which formed part of a wider joint agency task force operation, tackling cross-jurisdictional criminality in counties Louth and Armagh. That included high-visibility multi-agency checkpoints and resulted in multiple house searches and several arrests for drug-related offences. Quantities of drugs were also seized. Other positive outcomes related to human trafficking, illegal moneylending, fraud, fuel smuggling and illicit cigarette manufacture. It is really important to note that, in March, we had over 200 delegates at a cross-border conference on organised crime. Again, that showcased the very close working relationships that are in place and the dedication of the JATF to keeping people safe.

First, I do not want to comment on specific cases. It is not wise for me, as Justice Minister, to do so without having all the information to hand. Secondly, as I stated, there are six work streams under the auspices of the IGA, but, of course, I meet the Minister on other occasions to have discussions when those issues surface. I am more than happy to raise those issues with him when we are in routine contact. It is important to say, however, that there are structures in place — thankfully, they were not disrupted, as they might have been, with our change in status with regard to the EU — to have people returned from one jurisdiction to another. Those exist under the current agreements. However, when it comes to things such as extradition, those are reserved matters and not matters for the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland.

A number of bits of work are happening, particularly with young people. The youth justice agencies on both sides of the border share learning and have collaborative work streams involving young people in border communities, particularly in the north-west. There has been quite a lot of collaboration in some of the work that has been done with young people in Donegal and Derry. That is one piece of work that they are doing. We are also looking at the learning from our experience in youth justice and how we can share that expertise on a cross-border basis to try to improve overall outcomes for young people, ensure that we can exit young people from the justice system as quickly as possible and minimise their future contact with it. That is a shared objective, I guess, that both jurisdictions have.

I absolutely join you in paying tribute to Sir Robin Masefield, who was the director general of prisons for a considerable period. He has passed away after an illness. It is, indeed, very sad. Those who worked with him found him to be a person of huge thought and integrity and somebody who was very committed to ending reoffending and to rehabilitation in prisons, primarily with a view to keeping people safe, which is always the overriding priority. On victims and witnesses of human trafficking and exploitation and the cross-border nature of that crime, a number of joint operations have been carried out in order to disrupt cross-border criminal networks. When there are pipelines for certain illegal substances, the same pipelines and connections will be used for all illegal substances. One week, it will be cigarettes, and, another week, it will be something else. Ultimately, people will be involved in those pipelines too, because, for those who are involved in the trafficking of human beings, people are just a commodity like any other. There is no humanity behind it.

In the work that is done, it is important that we are able to support victims and potential victims of trafficking and exploitation. Access to support is available from the Department of Justice for those who have been identified as victims. That is supported and provided through contact with Women's Aid and Migrant Help. The Home Office sets out the provision of that support, because it is a reserved matter. We are delivery partners with the Home Office, but it is important to note, from our strategic oversight group and from the IGA, that cross-border cooperation on the ground among police, revenue commissioners, Border Force and others is part of the overall package of work that gets done. We are not responsible for the immigration part because of its reserved nature, but we are responsible for disrupting the organised crime networks, which are undoubtedly involved in human trafficking and in human misery.

The hub is undertaking additional research projects that link closely to the Youth Justice Agency's corporate plan for 2025-28: research on the gendered experiences and pathways to justice contact for girls in Northern Ireland, which is due to be completed this summer and will inform the Youth Justice Agency's approach to supporting girls in the youth justice system, and an evaluation of the Youth Justice Agency's child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) partnership, which is at the planning stage. Both pieces of research will be of significant value to the Youth Justice Agency and come at no cost to the agency, as they are being delivered by the hub using funding provided by the Shared Island initiative. It is therefore a win-win situation for us to be engaged in the process.

As I said, a number of groups undertake work in that space,. The one that is probably key is the Public Protection Advisory Group (PPAG), which remains one of the most proactive groups under the IGA. It is doing work on sexual offender management training, on risk assessment for females and on transition perpetrators. Prisons, police and probation services on both sides of the border could access the workshop. We have also developed a new leadership programme, which has 32 participants, to develop skills in that area, and the shared development goals are an important part of it. As part of the victims PAG, we are looking at improving services and policies, particularly the Victim Charter and the Witness Charter, which, as the Member knows, are important for those who have been affected by domestic and sexual violence and abuse. We have also been sharing our learning on the children's sexual offences legal adviser (CSOLA) scheme on the impact that that might have. There is a lot of interest in the South in how it might apply similar measures in its court system.

If the Member does not have the figures to hand, perhaps he should desist from making inflammatory statements about the significance of the issue, because it is really unhelpful to talk about people — any people — in those terms. I met the Justice Minister under the auspices of the IGA. The Justice Minister is my counterpart when it comes to justice matters. When it comes to migration, he is the counterpart of the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. He is not my counterpart. With respect, the Member can shake his head all that he wishes, but migration is a reserved matter for the mother of all Parliaments. I am surprised that a unionist

would suggest that it should be otherwise. It is not a devolved matter; it is a reserved matter. However, we are kept informed of the work that is going on between AGS,

the PSNI and Border Force and the work that they are undertaking. You will appreciate, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, even if others do not, that there is an operational element to this, for which I am not accountable. I understand that Members find this difficult —

I understand that Members find this difficult, but the separation of powers between politics and operational justice is one of the foundations of a free democracy. Members who seek to encroach on that in the Chamber, week on week, need to give their heads a wobble.

That is not a discussion that we had at this meeting of the IGA, but it is a discussion that I had at a previous meeting with the former Justice Minister, because we are looking at what options are available to us in tightening the rules on good character witness statements and evidence. It is something that we have discussed in the past, but we did not discuss it at this meeting.

The cross-border day of action was not about the Omagh inquiry, which is a separate matter. It related to the disruption of organised crime gangs. As I set out in my statement, there were drug seizures, house searches and vehicle searches following up from that day of action that allowed AGS and PSNI to recover significant quantities of material from those who were traversing the border during that joined-up action. The important thing from my perspective is that that good cooperation can lay the foundations for good cooperation at other levels. I hope that that good cooperation will extend to the Irish Government when it comes to the Omagh bombing inquiry, but clearly that is not directly related to the day of action. I have, however, taken the opportunity to raise with Jim O'Callaghan, the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach the issue of the Omagh bomb inquiry and the importance of their full and frank cooperation with it to ensure that victims get the truth and clarity that they deserve.

There are a number of things. First, there is a project advisory group specifically for victims and witnesses. That continues to engage positively on learning and how we can better understand the needs and interests of victims and witnesses through the system. There are common challenges in both jurisdictions, so there are opportunities for us to learn from each other. I have already mentioned the like of the CSOLA scheme that we have introduced here: there is real interest from the South in taking the learning from that scheme and replicating it. We should not always assume that it is for us to learn and for others to lead: sometimes, it can be the other way round. There has also been an ongoing sharing of progress updates and emerging learning from the implementation of the Gillen review and the O'Malley review, which happened around the same time and largely covered the same issues. In Northern Ireland, we have a panel of registered intermediaries, and the intermediary scheme secretariat has assisted with the development of a similar scheme in the Republic of Ireland. Registered intermediaries continue to provide help, advice and job-shadowing opportunities to their counterparts in the South, which, again, is an example of an area in which we have been able to lead and share learning with others.

The last one is the disclosure of complainants' personal material, which, we know, has been particularly fraught. My officials have been engaging with officials in the South about the disclosure of that material in trial processes, as it is a live issue in both jurisdictions. We are seeking to address that in the victims and witnesses of crime Bill: enhanced protection of complainants' personal information and article 8 rights, balanced against the accused's article 6 rights via judicial oversight.

We had no discussion about the Kingsmills case at that meeting because it was an update on the progress that is being made for victims and witnesses of contemporary crime. It was not about legacy issues. Legacy issues are generally dealt with through direct engagement between either me or other members of the Executive and the Tánaiste and Taoiseach or the Secretary of State and Prime Minister, rather than through the auspices of the IGA. However, as I said, I had the opportunity to discuss with Minister O'Callaghan the importance of every person who was affected by the Troubles — every victim and every survivor — being able to access truth and justice where that is available and knowing that there is no barrier from either Government or any other body to try to prevent their accessing that truth and justice.

The PSNI already is on the border as a physical presence, and that is supplemented by the work of the Border Force, which is the UK agency that has responsibility for migration crime. The PSNI can work with AGS to disrupt the organised crime networks that operate throughout these islands exploiting human misery and vulnerable individuals and engaging in human trafficking and modern-day slavery. As I pointed out, the PSNI, along with AGS, has already dealt with cases of coercive and grooming behaviour and trafficking. It is important that it does so with the support of Border Force. It is an important issue that needs to be addressed so that those who have a right to come and seek asylum or refuge in Northern Ireland and those who have a right to come to Northern Ireland to seek work are able to do so without being descried as "illegal" when, often, that is simply not the case.

3,960 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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