Long meets Jess Phillips MP and Fleur Anderson MP
Date published:
Justice Minister Naomi Long has met with Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips and NIO Minister Fleur Anderson to discuss issues including safeguarding and addressing violence against women and girls.
Minister Long detailed some of the measures that have been implemented by the Department of Justice to help tackle domestic and sexual abuse, including the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy, and the introduction of Domestic Homicide Reviews and the Sexual Offences Legal Advisors scheme.
Speaking after the meeting, Minister Long said: “I welcome the meeting which was particularly timely with Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week coming up next week. The discussions were constructive and included the issue of domestic and sexual abuse and the steps we are taking to reduce the harm being caused by these heinous crimes.
“It is unacceptable that violence is the reality for some in our society. I remain absolutely committed to challenging this normality and to helping create a society where domestic and sexual violence is totally unacceptable. Indeed, my department has been involved in the development of The Power to Change campaign launched by the PSNI.
“This campaign urges the public to play their part in achieving a cultural and societal change in attitudes towards inappropriate behaviours that may potentially result in a criminal offence.”
Jess Phillips MP is the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls. Fleur Anderson MP is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office. Discussions with the Ministers also included the Enabling Access to Justice reform programme.
Minister Long said: “I recently announced a major programme of reform to improve access to justice and to better support those using publicly funded legal services.
“This will not be without its challenges however it is imperative that we ensure the future sustainability of the justice system, increasing eligibility for legal aid and open up the service to a wider proportion of society.”
Minister Phillips said: “It was important to meet with Minister Long and Minister Anderson to discuss our joint commitment to tackling the appalling levels of violence against women and girls, and how vital it is for a wholesale, transformative approach.
“We have an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade and putting victims at the heart of everything we do is central to this. We will continue to crack on and deliver a system that protects victims, supports their journey to justice and holds perpetrators to account.
“A new cross-government strategy to be published later this year is absolutely core to our ambition.”
Minister Anderson said: "I very much welcome this meeting with Minister Long. I invited Minister Jess Phillips to Northern Ireland to really show our full support in the efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, and all domestic and sexual abuse here in Northern Ireland.
“The scale of these issues, here and right across the UK, is intolerable and the solution requires a whole-of-society approach. I welcome the initiatives that Minister Long outlined and look forward to collaborating with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that every woman and girl across the UK can feel safe wherever she is."
Notes to editors:
1. Photo caption: L-R: Fleur Anderson, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, Justice Minister Naomi Long, Jess Phillips MP, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls.
2. The vision for the Domestic & Sexual Abuse Strategy {include link to strategy}, which was launched last September, is that Northern Ireland is a place where:
- Domestic and/or sexual abuse is not tolerated, and everyone can be safe and free from fear;
- Domestic and/or sexual abuse is everyone’s business, where partnership work and collaborative approaches create lasting change across our communities and provide hope.
- The voice of victims, including children and young people, is valued and central to decision making.
3. Minister Long introduced Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) in December 2020.
- A DHR may be considered within the following circumstances:
- The deceased person is aged 16 or over;
- The death has or appears to have resulted from violence, abuse or neglect, which has been caused by:
- A person to whom the victim was related, or
- A person with whom they had been in an intimate personal relationship with, or
- A member of the same household.
4. The Sexual Offences Legal Advisers (SOLA) pilot scheme provides free, independent legal advice and advocacy to adult complainants in serious sexual offence cases up to the point of trial. The introduction of the SOLA scheme was one of the key recommendations arising from the Gillen Review, intended to support and empower complainants; lower attrition in serious sexual offence cases; and increase overall confidence in the criminal justice system.
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6. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted out of hours on 028 9037 8110.