Debate contribution: Sentencing: Drug Dealing

Debate contribution by Mr Doug Beattie MC on 21 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Doug Beattie MC

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

21 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Sentencing: Drug Dealing

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5498028

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. First, I thank the party opposite for tabling what is a really important motion. I also thank Minister Muir for coming here on behalf of Minister Long. Please pass on our regards to her. I hope that she gets better soon. The motion rightly expresses concern about drug-related deaths and the 47% increase that there been in a decade. It also sets out the complex issues of drug addiction and the need for joined-up thinking from the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Department of Justice and the Department for Communities to improve prevention and recovery outcomes. We need to involve all Departments. To me, however, the main thrust of the motion is about something different. It is about those who deal illegal drugs for profit: individuals who do not care about the human cost of peddling drugs and who target the very young and the very old. They will drag people into a life of addiction in order to line their pockets. Those individuals have a negative impact on our society and should be dealt with by a robust criminal justice system. The issue is how we deal with them in the criminal justice system when they are found guilty of dealing drugs and what should inform sentencing. On previous occasions, I have been clear that custodial sentences of less than 12 months are pointless, because very little can be done in a 12-month period. Serious offences deserve stronger custodial sentences, in line with the principles of sentencing: rehabilitation, deterrence, protecting the public and punishment. All four principles are key, but the last three need to be found within a suitable sentence for those who deal drugs. That means stiffer sentences for those who are found guilty of supplying illegal drugs; stronger sentences where drug dealers have caused death and harm; longer sentences for repeat offenders and longer probation monitoring; and extended time in custody rather than on licence and continued probation monitoring. Pauline Duddy, who lost her daughter Jasmin, aged just 21, after she was supplied with illegal drugs, is right to call for an aggregating factor to be considered when sentencing.

We can do that and do so quickly in the Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill. Part of our amendment mentions:

"the Executive’s tackling paramilitarism, criminality and organised crime programme".

We cannot ignore the role that paramilitaries and organised crime groups play in the supply of illegal drugs and their control of the drugs trade. We have to tackle that. I believe in the tactic of clear, hold and build: clear an area of organised crime gangs that deal drugs through policing, education, community resilience and a robust criminal justice system to protect the public; hold through visible and continual police presence and community support, using sentencing as a deterrent; and build on that community's resilience and opposition to drug dealers by highlighting the higher sentences for drug dealers. Lastly, our amendment lays out the need to reform sentencing in Northern Ireland "via a sentencing council". I am disappointed that the party opposite will not support that, because it supported us in June, when I brought that suggestion to the Floor. It would involve no time lag, because provisions on a sentencing council would go in the same Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill and come out the other end of that, if there is support for it. We have such a council in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but we do not have one in Northern Ireland. It is the only place that does not have a sentencing council. A sentencing council will develop sentencing guidelines, monitor and assess the impact on perpetrators and victims, and promote public understanding. I remain of the belief that sentence credit — that is, a sentence reduction, which means that we give a drug dealer, even one who is a repeat offender or has caused death or harm, up to a quarter off their sentence — needs to be reviewed. Those who deal drugs deal death, and that will happen unless we start to take robust action against them. I will not stand against the motion, but I commend the amendment to the House.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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