Debate contribution: Criminal Justice System: Failure to Transform

Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on 6 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Brian Kingston

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

6 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Criminal Justice System: Failure to Transform

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5157500

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As a new member of the Justice Committee, I am doing a lot of reading to better understand the operation of the various agencies in the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland. It is certainly a complicated structure, and, it has to be said, our justice system is not performing efficiently compared with justice systems elsewhere in the UK. The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) report 'Speeding up justice: avoidable delay in the criminal justice system' stated in 2018:

"Crown Court cases in Northern Ireland typically take more than 500 days from the date an offence is reported until a verdict is delivered in court, twice as long as in England and Wales."

Those figures have not improved. DOJ figures for 2024-25 show that Crown Court cases in which someone had been charged with an offence in Northern Ireland took an average of 542 days to complete. That is still over twice the UK average of about 225 days. Summons cases in the Northern Ireland Crown Court last year took twice as long again, an average of over 1,200 days, to complete. Our motion focuses on the Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland report 'Transforming the Criminal Justice System', which was published in November last year. The report was certainly critical of our criminal justice system. Chief Inspector Jacqui Durkin wrote in her foreword:

"Transformational change needs transformational leaders who have the courage and capacity to take risks and deliver the improvements needed to our criminal justice system that the public expects and service users deserve."

The executive summary begins by describing the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland as:

"a system that is difficult to navigate even for those who work within it. It involves a collection of organisations and leaders that have operational independence, different operating models, workforces, budget and governance arrangements."

It is now 15 years since justice was devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive and the Assembly in 2010, so the inspectorate and the public will rightly ask what improvements have been made to reduce delays. The inspection report, however, states that there has been:

"limited improvement since 2010, in how the criminal justice system was performing and the experience for victims, witnesses and defendants as well as those working in the criminal justice system."

The report concludes that the Criminal Justice Board, which, I understand, the Minister chairs, is:

"uniquely placed to provide the direction and decision-making needed to agree criminal justice system-wide strategic priorities aligned to achieving better outcomes for service users and the public with available funding levels".

The report is helpfully brief. It makes just one strategic recommendation and two operational recommendations in order to focus minds. Its single strategic recommendation is that, within six months of the publication of the report last November, the Criminal Justice Board, which the Minister chairs, should agree:

"a shared future vision and strategic priorities to deliver transformational change and innovation across the criminal justice system."

There are two operational recommendations. One of those is for the PSNI's strategic transformation board. The other is:

"Within six months ... the Department ... the Criminal Justice Board"

and various chief officers "should review" various elements of the criminal justice structure

"with the aim of reducing duplication to release capacity."

In other words, an efficiency drive. Now that it is 11 months since the report was published, our motion asks the Minister what progress has been made, whether the recommendations have been achieved — if not, why not — and what the action plan and timescale are for achieving:

"a shared future vision and aligned strategic priorities for improving the effectiveness of the criminal justice system without further delay."

I am astonished that Alliance has said that it will vote against the motion. Does it reject the CJI report? The actions called for in our motion are the actions called for in the CJI report. Scrutiny, criticism and recommendations are the pathway to improvement. When criminal justice does not perform effectively, there is a significant impact on victims, defendants, witnesses and their families.

We all, and the Minister —.

We have a duty to deliver that strategic change.

688 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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