To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on the Speeding up Justice programme.

Mrs Long

The speeding up justice programme is a five-year programme of work driven by the Criminal Justice Board and aimed at reducing avoidable delay across the criminal justice system. The programme is part of the Executive's Programme for Government delivery, specifically with regard to the safer communities priority and underpinned by the reform and transformation of public services priority. The programme comprises five projects: out-of-court disposals; early engagement; committal reform; remit of the Magistrates' Court; and digital. The early engagement and out-of-court disposals projects are supported by £20·5 million of transformation funding. Work on out-of-court disposals is advancing at pace, and I hope to bring forward secondary legislation on that in the coming months that should see expanded powers for police officers to deal with lower-level offences by way of penalty notices. That will help to divert cases that involve lower-level offending away from prosecution through the courts, where they are currently attracting only monetary fines, and ensure that finite criminal justice resources are used effectively. Building on the first phase of committal reform, work is progressing on the next phase — direct committal — which I plan to implement in November 2026. That will allow the most-serious cases to progress more quickly to Crown Court. That is supported by early engagement, which is exploring opportunities for early engagement between police, prosecution and defence so that cases move faster through the system. Work is progressing on a number of initiatives, including measures to improve file quality and taking learning from the better case management processes used in England and Wales. I am progressing work on the remit of the Magistrates' Court project, which is exploring options to expand the jurisdiction of Magistrates' Courts, enabling cases to be handled in a more proportionate manner and helping to reduce backlogs in the court system. All the projects will be supported by digital initiatives, which can help to make the projects more sustainable in the long term. Taken collectively, the programme should rebalance resources, where lower-level offending will be dealt with outside formal court processes, releasing much-needed resources to deal with the most serious offending.

Mrs Long

Out-of-court disposals are part of the Programme for Government commitment and are central to tackling delay in the criminal justice system, which is under significant pressure due to years of underfunding. Out-of-court disposals have been recognised by Lord Leveson as a central measure to reduce demand on the criminal courts, and stabilise the system, which is at risk of collapse, offering a far faster and more proportionate and cost-effective response to lower-level offending whilst improving victim satisfaction and creating opportunities for early rehabilitation. Out-of-court disposals are long-standing and essential tools to help to divert appropriate cases that involve low-level offending away from prosecution through the courts and ensure that resources are used well. To deal most swiftly with serious cases that are heard in the Crown Court, including murders, serious sexual offence cases and others, we need to create capacity across the system and free up police, prosecutors and courts. It will be vital, therefore, that cases are dealt with proportionately, prosecuted at the right court tier or, if appropriate, dealt with through out-of-court disposal. The measures are not about leniency. They are about delivering the same outcomes but through a shorter measure. Most of the cases that we are talking about for out-of-court disposal will be those that would receive similar outcomes — that is, a monetary penalty — when they go through the courts. In order to get to that point, however, much more resource will have been used by police, prosecutors and the courts. It is important that we are able to get out-of-court disposals progressed because that will, ultimately, underpin much of the rest of the work that we do, and it is our justification for the application and bid to the transformation fund.

Ms Ferguson

I welcome the five strands of speeding up justice. Will the Minister throw some light on the £20·5 million transformation money received and what impact that is having to date?

Mrs Long

Significant progress has already been made, but we are in a difficult position because the withdrawal of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) from cases has been, if you like, acting contrary to our intentions. However, we have been looking carefully and, of course, there is much more to be done. We made a 7·8% reduction in case-processing times across 2023-24 and another 0·5% across 2024-25. That is something positive that we have been able to deliver. The Criminal Justice Board is also giving careful consideration to the development of formal targets for reducing delay so that we can provide those measurables. A range of options has been explored to determine how system-wide targets can be approached and derived. Defining what measures we should monitor is straightforward, but agreeing what meaningful targets look like is less straightforward, so we are still working on that. In line with the public transformation board funding, a range of action-based targets has been set. At present, as I said, we are focusing on the development of out-of-court disposals. After that, we will look at the Magistrates' Court and then at some of the other measures that I mentioned earlier.

Mr McGlone

Minister, the speeding up justice programme will increase the number of cases being dealt with, but can you give an assurance that it will not diminish the quality of justice that people receive?

Mrs Long

I give that assurance. We are looking at particular cohorts of cases for which, at the moment, the normal, most likely penalty would be monetary. Allowing the PSNI to deliver that as a penalty notice rather than have to go through the courts and prosecutors in order to get, in essence, the same outcome will free up significant resources. Lord Leveson's study demonstrated that the public were happier because they saw justice being delivered more swiftly. That also allows for additional rehabilitation opportunities for the individual and ensures that, if somebody already has a penalty notice, they cannot benefit from a second one. If somebody reoffends in short measure, they will end up going through the courts. Crucially, if they do not reoffend, we can keep them out of the justice system and, hopefully, avoid problems that we might otherwise have with desistance. The key for me is the outcomes and the satisfaction of victims. In many cases where it takes a long time for the courts to get to the point of giving out a monetary penalty, that seems to be unsatisfactory.