To ask the Minister of Justice what action is she taking to contribute toward ending violence against women and girls.

Mrs Long

Every life lost through violence is an unacceptable tragedy, and I think that we are all rightly and deeply appalled at the increase in incidents of violence against women in recent weeks. All of us must do everything in our power to challenge and change the attitudes and behaviours that treat women's lives as though they are expendable. There must be a collective effort across society and government to address those issues. The cases involving four of the recent victims are being processed through the criminal justice system. Domestic homicide reviews have so far been commissioned in two of those cases. However, there is also ongoing work under way to reduce risk and to contribute to an end to violence against women and girls. That includes work under the domestic and sexual abuse strategy, which is led by my Department and the Department of Health. That strategy was launched by the Health Minister and I on 25 September. The interdependencies between that strategy and the strategic framework on ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG) are evident, given that women and girls are disproportionately affected by domestic and sexual abuse. All efforts to address domestic and sexual abuse under the strategy will directly contribute to the broader goal of ending violence against women and girls. However, importantly, we also recognise that violence perpetrated against women and girls is not restricted to domestic situations and that domestic and sexual abuse can also affect men and boys. That reinforces the need for the Executive's strategic framework on violence against women and girls to be implemented in parallel with the domestic and sexual abuse strategy. My officials work closely with the Executive Office on the development of the EVAWG framework, and we are committed to continued collaboration and partnership. Our governance structures will ensure alignment and support ongoing joint efforts to protect everyone.

Mrs Long

First, we will all want to acknowledge and pay tribute to the invaluable role that the voluntary and community sector plays, not only in providing crucial support to victims and survivors but in bringing collective knowledge, skills and expertise to inform our strategic policy and operational responses. With the launch of the strategy came the launch of the domestic and sexual abuse small grant scheme. That scheme offers voluntary and community sector members the opportunity to apply for funding to support new ideas and initiatives that align with the strategic objectives of the domestic and sexual abuse strategy. Initially, those grants will be drawn from our ring-fenced cross-cutting domestic and sexual abuse funding that is aimed at supporting the vital work that is carried out by front-line organisations. Through that initiative, we hope to empower our partners to continue their essential work and make a meaningful impact.

Mr Beattie

Minister, robust sentencing is another tool for ending violence against women and girls. Does the Minister agree that, when it comes to sentence credit, which is a useful tool for getting the guilty to admit their guilt early, leaving it until the last moment to admit guilt while still getting the same credit is quite negative?

Mrs Long

As the Member will know, the decisions that are made by the judiciary are entirely independent when it comes to sentencing. However, the issue of sentence credit has been raised by a number of members of the Criminal Justice Board. The determining point is what we consider to be an early plea. Is it on the first day of the trial, which may be early from the perspective of the judge in court, or is it early in the investigation, which could save the police and Public Prosecution Service (PPS) huge investigatory resources? I believe that it should be the latter, not the former. It is important that we talk that through with the Lady Chief Justice and others around the Criminal Justice Board table. We must also ensure that people understand the sentencing frameworks that are in place and how they are being applied. Often, sentencing appears to be opaque, and the reasons for discounts and other things in sentencing are often misunderstood. The very language of "discount" is often very offensive to victims. We need to work through those issues in a manner that is sensitive to victims and their needs, and one of the reasons why I created a Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime was that she would be able to, impartially and without any overtures of political interference, raise those sorts of issues in the right way.

Ms Brownlee

Revenge porn is undeniably a form of sexual abuse that causes significant psychological harm. Will the Minister give her assessment of the current effectiveness of the revenge porn legislation?

Mrs Long

The revenge porn legislation in Northern Ireland is reasonably up to date, in the sense that it was first introduced, I think, in 2014-15. It was then further refined, as some of your colleagues who sat on the previous Justice Committee will recall, to include threats to release private materials, which is a form of blackmail but also a form of sexual abuse. Where further work can be done and where we have been engaging with the Home Office is on such issues as deepfake imagery, which is often not as easy to prove in order to get convictions. It can also be very difficult to detect. With the increase in AI and deepfake technology, we need to be constantly horizon scanning for what needs to come next. There was an intention for a Westminster Bill on that issue to come forward before the general election, but it fell. As yet, we are unaware whether the Labour Government intend to reintroduce some of those measures, which also included, for example, things like a specific offence of spiking. If the opportunity comes for us to seek legislative consent to piggyback on that legislation, I would be open to doing so.

Mrs Dillon

When we talk about violence against women and girls, we need to be clear that it is by men. When we talk about it in the domestic setting of men and boys, it is mostly by men. We need to be honest about that. For those on remand, who are mostly, in these cases, men, what can we do to put something in place? Very often, they are released from prison because they have served their time on remand. We need to make sure that they are getting counselling, anger management or whatever needs to be put in place to protect the women, girls and children who will be around them when they are released.

Mrs Long

The Member probably highlights the most frustrating thing for victims when it comes to holding people on remand. When people are given bail, it can be incredibly frustrating for victims, particularly where they feel vulnerable or under threat. What is even more frustrating is when victims, in cases where they get a conviction, see somebody released time served. It looks as though they have not been punished for what they did. When they are on remand, unfortunately, we cannot compel them to comply, because they are innocent until proven guilty. We can offer them education and rehabilitation, but, as most people on remand maintain their innocence until the court trial starts, we often find that people are unwilling to, for example, engage in specific perpetrator programmes. We are looking at what we can do before people offend by working with those at risk of offending or with a history of offending. We have found that perpetrator programmes often work better for those who voluntarily sign up to them than for those who are assigned to them by the courts.