Debate contribution: Domestic Violence Cases: Court Delays
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
- Domestic Violence Cases: Court Delays
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5269172
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The major outstanding bit is the DAPOs and DAPNs because we were not prepared enough to be able to do the regulations in the time frame that the Committee set out in its amendment and there were serious concerns about their operation in other jurisdictions. The coercive control elements of the legislation are operable and are working at the moment. The question is, I suppose, whether people are adequately trained and supported to identify coercive control of all kinds. I will often feed back to colleagues in other parts of the justice system that victims have said to me that they felt that, for example, their financial coercive control was dismissed by the PSNI as simply a civil matter that they needed to take through the civil courts. More work can be done around training, but, as you know, annual training is part of the Act. Therefore, we have the opportunity to revisit that with colleagues on the operational side to make sure that, where, we feel, gaps or trends are emerging, we can close those gaps through training.
179 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 (0.91).
- 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 | 0.03 | 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 | 0.91 | 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 | 0.67 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.20 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.13 |
| 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.
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