To ask the Minister of Justice for her assessment of the number of paramilitary style attacks over the last year.

Mrs Long

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, there were 28 casualties of paramilitary-style attacks, a significant reduction from the 50 recorded in 2023. Within that, there were five casualties of paramilitary-style shootings, approximately a quarter of the number that occurred in 2023. Whilst there is likely to be a range of factors affecting the reduction, I must commend the Executive programme on paramilitarism and organised crime (EPPOC) on the work being done to address this complex societal and generational issue. Over the last eight years, EPPOC has been testing innovative interventions aimed at tackling paramilitary harm in the here and now and breaking the cycle of violence for future generations. Those interventions include those that support victims of paramilitary harm, improving outcomes for individuals and helping to break the victim-perpetrator cycle. Targeted youth work that is delivered in a variety of ways, including through street-based initiatives and even in emergency departments, and help to prevent young people at risk of paramilitary exploitation and abuse from becoming engaged in criminality in the first place are just some of the structures that we have put in place.

Mrs Long

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 service designed for victims of paramilitary-style attacks. It was commissioned by EPPOC in 2022 and is delivered by NIACRO. As well as providing support for victims of paramilitary violence, it is actively learning about effective approaches and informing work on tackling violence and paramilitarism more generally. The hospital-based Connect project for youth work places youth workers in three hospital emergency departments. They work as navigators, engaging young people when they first arrive at the hospital and through community-based follow-up. As well as the work to change the language around paramilitary violence, the programme helps to raise awareness of the specific nature of the trauma caused by paramilitaries. That may mean that more service providers are better able to identify those requiring specific help and support.

Mr Beattie

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.

Mrs Long

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 paramilitaries in our community. Ultimately, whilst I want to reduce the harm of paramilitaries in communities, I want more than anything to end the existence of paramilitaries in our community. That is a permanent solution to what we face as a community, and it needs to be accelerated.

Mr O'Toole

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 legislation?

Mrs Long

As the Member knows, paramilitaries will act under any banner that allows them to justify their existence to a local community or to pretend that they are protagonists acting on behalf of that community. The truth is that they feed off the misery in those communities. The Member will also be aware that I intend to implement the aggravator model, which Judge Marrinan recommended in his report on hate crime, as part of the sentencing Bill that we hope to introduce in the autumn of this year. The following year, we hope to introduce legislation on victims and witnesses of crime that will see more protections for vulnerable victims and witnesses extended to victims of hate crime. There are, however, things that we can do and are doing in the meantime, including providing bespoke support to members of ethnic minority groups and different racial groups in society and giving reassurance through the work that the Department is doing more widely to combat those ills.

Mr Carroll

Last week, the Minister for Communities removed intimidation points for victims of paramilitary-style violence. Minister, does your Department have any concern about the impact that that will have on people's safety and on their ability to live a life free from paramilitaries?

Mrs Long

I was clear in my statement that, while I welcome the fact that the criteria for extra points relating to paramilitary harm have been changed to reflect the wider harms that happen in our society, such as domestic violence and sexual abuse, which were very much a secondary consideration when it came to claiming points for homelessness, I recognised the importance of ensuring that people are no longer being driven from their homes by such organisations or individuals. The Executive now need to focus on how we can ensure that people can remain in their home safely rather than allow individuals to dictate where and when people can live at peace and get on with their lives.