Member's statement: PSNI: Additional Funding

Member's statement by Mr Trevor Clarke on 21 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Trevor Clarke

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

21 October 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

PSNI: Additional Funding

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5197191

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I will speak on funding for policing and, for the first time, not blame the Minister of Justice for the debacle that is unfolding before us. First, I will say that my thoughts are with the men and women who, every day, put on their uniform and go out to serve our community. They are caught up in a debacle through no fault of their own and, I dare say, through no fault of any Ministers in the Executive. This week, it has been shameful to hear, through a leaked report from the Treasury — I suggest that people were briefed — suggestions that it will not give additional funding to the PSNI. It is shameful that the Secretary of State is not standing up for the PSNI. Indeed, he enjoys its support and protection every time that he flies into Northern Ireland on a whim. He said that such things should have been planned and budgeted for. I say this to the Secretary of State: I am not sure how any Minister, be that the current or any future Minister of Justice, could have planned for things that happened in our past. I declare an interest as a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board. I have an insight into some of the things from the past and their cost to the Northern Ireland purse. I am talking primarily about legacy. If the Secretary of State were to quantify what legacy has cost since the formation of the Assembly and give us that money, it would remove the difficulties that we face with the current funding cycle in which we are stuck. We can look also at the Government's immigration policy and asylum policy, both of which we had no say on. Some in the Chamber support having asylum seekers here, but asylum seekers have brought with them problems — some of them unforeseen — for the police by way of protests and riots. That has been through no fault of the Assembly. Rather, it has been the fault of the current Government and their policies. The report talked about planned events. No one planned for the data breach. The data breach was unforeseen and clearly not planned. I do not know what planet the Treasury is living on: it must be cloud cuckoo land. No one went into work that day to leak information about all those officers and their families. It was an accident. I see the Member opposite shaking his head. It was a mistake that is going to cost tens of millions of pounds, however. Early indications from the Treasury were that it was going to support the payment of compensation, but it is now running away, as it does from everything else.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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