Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Progress
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 1 December 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Progress
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5269152
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Ending violence against women and girls is a cross-Executive priority led by the Executive Office. My Department, alongside the Department of Health, leads on the domestic and sexual abuse strategy, which is gender-inclusive and recognises that those harms can affect anyone. While my Department does not hold specific data on progress against the wider ending violence against women and girls strategic framework, we continue to work closely with the Executive Office to support the delivery of its objectives. However, it is important to recognise that violence against women and girls goes beyond domestic and sexual abuse and encompasses a broader spectrum of harms, which is why the Executive Office leads on that work and the associated data collection. Alongside the domestic and sexual abuse strategy, which was launched in September 2024, my Department has published a comprehensive performance framework to monitor progress for all victims of domestic and sexual abuse. Work is under way to agree the approach to identification of baseline data and data capture to inform future reporting cycles, which will enable us to measure how much we are doing and how well we are doing it on a consistent financial basis. However, the data collected under the domestic and sexual abuse strategy will relate to all victims of domestic and/or sexual abuse, regardless of gender.
218 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: 0.03 (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 (0.67).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- 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 | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.67 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | 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 |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.72 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.28 |
| 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 14:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.