Debate contribution: Crime and Policing Bill: Legislative Consent Motion
Debate contribution by Ms Connie Egan on .
- MLA
- Ms Connie Egan
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 2 February 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Crime and Policing Bill: Legislative Consent Motion
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5356381
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Alliance Party supports the legislative consent motion on the relevant provisions in the Crime and Policing Bill. The legislation covers a vast number of offences, all of which will help improve public safety and deter crime across the region. I will briefly note a few specific examples in order to highlight the work that Minister Long and the Department of Justice have been progressing over the past months. The legislative consent motion will bring new restrictions on bulk-buying knives. PSNI statistics show that, last year, over 500 violent or sexual crimes in Northern Ireland involved the use of knives. The new law will help stamp out knife crime and keep communities safe. The motion will also bring in new offences relating to pornography that portrays strangulation and suffocation. Troublingly, strangulation and choking during sex has become normalised among young people, particularly young men, and puts people's lives at risk. The policy will provide a further tool in our efforts to protect women and eradicate violence against women and girls. There is also, of course, the criminalisation of the creation or possession of child sexual abuse image generators. The rapid development of AI means that we are fighting child abuse on more fronts than ever. That measure will put in place an additional protection to help keep children safe. It will also complement a wider package of measures being delivered by Alliance, which will include the Minister's work on deepfakes and Kate Nicholl's amendment to the Justice Bill on nudification apps. I urge everyone in the House to support the passage of the motion and the protections contained in it.
270 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: 0.04 (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 (0.65).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.98).
- Subject area: Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups.
- 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 | 0.06 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.05 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.65 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.98 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.02 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.55 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.44 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:18 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.