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Minister, one of the activities that paramilitaries have been engaged in in addition to, if I can call them this, traditional paramilitary-style attacks is hate crime, particularly race hate crime, in South Belfast. What is her Department specifically looking to do to address that? Does it include hate crime…
Without doubt, the reach of harm that paramilitaries inflict on our communities is extensive and wide-ranging. The Member has namechecked a number of the most common types. Of course, it is not limited to those. We know that child sexual and criminal exploitation, among many other things, is a feature of…
Does the Minister agree that the statistics on paramilitary attacks do not tell the whole story? When you add moneylending, racketeering, extortion and intimidation, all that activity has a negative effect on society and can be just as harming as paramilitary-style attacks.
Since 2021, the programme has developed and tested a range of interventions involving over 2,500 victims of paramilitary harm who have been directly supported by the programme. That is helping to break the victim-perpetrator cycle for future generations. Key interventions include the Insync project, the first bespoke…
I thank the Minister for her comments on the two recent events. Will the Minister outline the interventions that the programme makes to provide specific support for victims of paramilitary-style attacks?
At the outset, I record my condemnation of the two most serious recent paramilitary-style shootings that occurred: one of a teenager in Ards, the other of a pensioner in Coleraine. Such barbaric brutality has no place in our community. Those attacks must stop. Statistics provided by the PSNI indicate that, in 2024,…
The Member will be aware that I am keen to extend the service to young people. I am delighted to be able to update Members on that: later this week, in partnership with Victim Support NI, I will officially launch the children's sexual offences legal adviser scheme. The scheme has been specifically designed to meet the…
In November 2024, I announced the extension of the adult sexual offences legal adviser — SOLA — pilot scheme for a further two years until 31 March 2027. The SOLA service is available to all adult complainants in serious sexual offence cases up to the point of trial and has provided free, independent legal advice to…
It is hugely important that we engage with the family. We have been doing that when looking at the terms of reference for the review and at how we intend to move forward with that. It is important that Katie's family are at the very heart of the review. They feel that their questions have not yet been answered and,…
I thank the Minister for her commitment to carrying out a review of that horrific case and the horrendous handling of it. Will the Minister commit that the review will also engage with those most hurt by the case, be they relatives of the victim or others who suffered from the fallout?
Not only is compliance essential; it is the very least that we can expect from the public bodies that were involved at any stage with Jonathan Creswell, Katie Simpson or any of Jonathan Creswell's alleged previous victims. I expect that key agencies will want to engage positively and constructively with the review, so…
The murder of Katie Simpson was an absolutely horrific event. The failings that occurred before Katie's death and in the investigation afterwards are a blight on our society. It is important that none of that is repeated. As the previous Member referenced, not just the PSNI but many bodies are involved. Does the…
With respect to my jurisdiction, I can go only so far with the review. I am clear, however, that it needs to operate on a multi-agency basis. I have already named the primary agencies: the PSNI, the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the Probation Board for Northern Ireland and the Western Health and Social Care Trust.…
I thank the Minister for her answer. Minister, can you confirm that the review will go wider than the justice bodies? I understand that it is your review, but there were failings across the piece, including in Health. Can you confirm that that will be the case and that there will be a North/South element to the review?
Members will be aware that, on 13 January, I committed to a bespoke review of the Jonathan Creswell case. It is vital that we understand and learn from the case in terms of both safeguarding victims and managing offenders. I am keen that the review begin as swiftly as possible. To that end, my Department has prepared…
I thank the Member for her question. It is really important in all our consultations, particularly as we move towards a co-production, co-design process, that we include the maximum number of people and groups. It is important that, at the early policy development stage, we feed in the needs and perspectives of groups…
No women or girls — at all — should ever feel any fear here in Northern Ireland, but I want to touch on those with additional needs or disabilities. How are the Executive supporting them to ensure that they, too, are protected, heard and listened to in the document?
I thank the Member for her important question. She will be aware that ending violence against women and girls is a priority issue for us. We have met a number of agencies with our team, and we met the PSNI recently. I am pleased to say that that statistic is not accurate. It was based on flawed data. Our levels of…
As the Member may be aware, we held an emergency Executive meeting on the Friday evening to get a good sense of what the impact might be across the Departments. There were impacts on all Departments from the damage to buildings and the interruption of service due to the lack of electricity. That was a useful…
You rightly spoke about the support that we received from across the UK during that incident. Will we look at best practice across the UK and elsewhere to see what we can implement here?
The Member is absolutely right. The communication among our blue-light services and between people in their homes, without water or electricity, and the likes of the Ambulance Service and the police is critical when we are hit with that type of storm event or crisis. We need to look at that urgently. A number of the…
There will certainly be learning from this. The civil contingencies frameworks that we stood up immediately worked very well. In a red alert, the PSNI takes the lead, and that then moves to the relevant departmental leads depending on the issue. There was good communication internally, and we tried to be at the…
Deputy First Minister, I think that we all echo your thanks and appreciation. Has your Department any plans to update emergency response plans for future extreme weather events such as storms, floods or severe snow?
I thank the Member for his question. It has been an incredibly busy week, not least for those who were out in all weathers working hard to restore power, reconnecting water systems, and clearing trees and obstructions from roads. I pay tribute to all the workers who worked tirelessly to perform such a mammoth task.…