To ask the Minister of Justice how she is addressing (i) community coercive control; and (ii) child criminal exploitation.

Understanding and addressing community coercive control is a priority for the Executive’s Programme on Paramilitarism, Criminality and Organised Crime (EPPOC).

The harms most commonly associated with paramilitary gangs relate to drugs, violence against the person, public order issues and shooting attacks. What is less obvious (and less obviously seen) is how paramilitary and organised crime groups negatively influence people's lives and behaviours, and how they maintain their position in communities through coercive control, intimidation and the threat of violence.

‘Gatekeeping’ is one way in which paramilitary groups cause hidden harm by controlling who speaks for and to communities. Restricting access to services is an extension of gatekeeping, as is limiting the horizons of people as to how and where they go for help.

Addressing this requires leadership to invoke change and enable communities to engage with the services, organisations and bodies that they want to in a way that is not dependent on gatekeepers. The aim is not to exclude anyone from having a say but to exclude those who would seek to exert coercive control from deciding who has a say.

The approach of the Executive’s Programme on paramilitarism combines robust, specialist law enforcement with projects and approaches that support individual and community resilience, and promote widespread participation and engagement. This includes: place-based community initiatives to equip particular cohorts – women, for example - with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to become involved in transformational community development; capacity building through education and training for community workers to be more effective, confident, and better equipped to manage negative influences, and; initiatives led by communities on community safety, health and wellbeing, arts and culture, area regeneration, personal transition, raising aspirations of young people and a regional project to increase the use of restorative practice in non-justice settings.

The responsibility for addressing this extends beyond the Executive Programme on Paramilitarism & Organised Crime. It is incumbent upon all of us to play our part in addressing the societal shrug that often occurs around coercive control.

In relation to Child Criminal Exploitation details of this have been provided in a previous AQW 7938/22-27.