Extra £20 million for North’s justice system
The North’s justice minister has welcomed the allocation of an extra Stg £23 million for what she describes as “much-needed” reforms of the system.
Almost £20.5 million has been allocated over five years to help speed up and transform the criminal-justice system, while £2.2 million has been allocated to an electronic monitoring project.
“Tackling delay is a key priority for me, and this additional funding will go some way to reducing avoidable delay across the justice system,” said minister Naomi Long.
‘Clear public message’
“Ensuring cases are dealt with appropriately and proportionately, gives a clear public message that crime is dealt with quickly and effectively,” she stated, adding that speeding up justice and reducing delays put the victims and witnesses at the heart of the justice system.
The £20.5 million will go towards work in two areas:
- Early engagement (working with PSNI, prosecution, and defence to maximise early engagement, promoting effective case progression and earlier resolution of cases), and
- Out-of-court disposals (developing mechanisms to look at how a greater number of lower-level cases could be dealt with more appropriately and efficiently outside the formal court system).
‘Enhanced monitoring’
Long said that the extra money for electronic tagging would allow her department to “transform” the way it monitored individuals released into the community.
Aspects under consideration include the implementation of GPS location-monitoring for those on bail or on licence fitted with an electronic tag as part of their release conditions.
“This enhanced monitoring could be used to strengthen bail conditions, probation orders, or prison release conditions and will provide accurate real-time monitoring of offenders,” the minister said.