To ask the Minister of Justice to detail any specific delivery milestones, set for 2025 under the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy, (i) that have been achieved; (ii) where shortfalls remain.

The Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy 2024–2031 launched in September 2024 and is being delivered through a multi-year action plan covering Years 1 to 3. Many of the actions are deliberately phased and sequenced, reflecting the fact that a number of the actions require preparatory work, engagement with delivery partners and, in some cases, legislative decisions or funding before they can be fully implemented. The Strategy is jointly led by my Department and the Department of Health, with the Department for Communities, the Department of Education and The Executive Office acting as key delivery partners.

In terms of strategic governance, substantial progress was made during 2025 across a wide range of key commitments:

Governance and oversight arrangements for the Strategy have been fully embedded, with the Strategy Oversight Board and Expert Reference Group meeting regularly and reporting aligned with the Executive’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) structures;

Funding for 2025/26 has been allocated;

a further Small Grants Scheme has been launched, enabling voluntary and community sector partners to deliver projects that support victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse or help prevent abuse in the first place.

In relation to criminal justice delivery my Department and its partners continue to make strong progress:

The Children’s Sexual Offences Legal Adviser (CSOLA) service was launched in February 2025 and is already providing specialist support to children and families.

The adult SOLA scheme has been extended until 2027 and continues to support thousands of victims. New advocacy support service contracts commenced in 2025 for both adults and children and young people.

My Department is continuing to oversee the Domestic Homicide Review process under which a new multi-agency group has been established to drive system-wide improvements in line with recommendations.

The Department has also published its statutory training statement under the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act to show that professional involved in policing, prosecution, courts and victims support are trained to understand domestic abuse.

The Department secured additional PPS resources for Domestic Abuse Contest Courts, which are achieving improved conviction rates.

Within the prison system, specialist Women’s Support and Trauma Support Worker services are now in place to support women who have experienced domestic and sexual abuse.

My Department also provided funding for and working in partnership to develop the Power to Change campaign which seeks to tackle the underlying behaviours and attitudes that can facilitate gender based violence. The campaign was launched jointly by the Chief Constable, Junior Minister Cameron and me in January 2025.

Significant work has also been progressed towards the establishment of new arrangements to replace the existing Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC). This has included significant engagement on a cross-sectoral and multi-agency basis. Recommendations for a new model have been agreed and work is underway to implement these. A number of practical changes are already in place and it is anticipated that new arrangements will be introduced in the first half of FY26/27.

Alongside this, I am aware that partner Departments have also delivered significant progress under the strategy during 2025.

The Department of Health has advanced work on routine enquiry, including additional information on domestic abuse in the Birth-Five and Pregnancy books and setting up a working group to take forward the next phase of this work which will focus on extending routine enquiry to other health professionals.

Promoting knowledge, awareness and resources in relation to harmful sexual behaviour amongst front-line professionals is progressing. The Harmful Sexual Behaviour report has been submitted and DoH and DoJ are considering next steps, subject to funding.

The Department of Health is exploring options in regard to the appointment of a Non-Executive Director on each Health and Social Care Trust Board for tackling and preventing domestic and sexual abuse and violence against women and girls.

The Department of Health intends to publish a Reflections Booklet on Domestic and Sexual Abuse specifically for social workers. This booklet aims to provide social workers with insights and guidance on best practices when dealing with cases of domestic and sexual abuse.

Work on the Online Safety Strategy is progressing under the updated action plan. Core messaging continues to be delivered through the Online Safety Hub, which hosts 300+ resources from over 30 trusted partners. It offers tailored content for adults and young people, plus guidance, signposting, and research. To support promotion, new demonstration video tours for adults and young people and the Autumn Hub Highlights newsletter were recently shared. The Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland is partnering with the UK Safer Internet Centre and the Education Authority to promote Safer Internet Day on 10 February 2026. The preventative education campaign explores AI’s benefits, risks, and ethical issues, including deepfakes. Two webinars for education and youth settings will run in January. Since January 2025, over 850 multiagency professionals trained on technology-assisted child sexual abuse (TACSA), with recorded resources in development to expand access, under the Online Safety Strategy Action Plan.

The Department for Communities and the Housing Executive have delivered Year 1 of the Housing Executive’s Domestic Abuse Action Plan, including expansion of the Sanctuary Scheme, major staff training programmes and additional homelessness prevention funding.

The Department of Education, through DSA strategy funding continues to work closely with the Education Authority and PSNI, providing support and advice for schools in receipt of Operation Encompass notifications. A programme of training and support for c300 non-statutory pre-schools in respect of the impacts of abuse is also underway in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation NI. In conjunction with The Executive Office under the EVAWG framework, DE is progressing the Healthy Relationships Forum and associated action plan that will coordinate interventions targeted at children and young people and focused on healthy relationships.

There are a number of areas where work is still in progress. It would be misleading to describe these as shortfalls as for the most part, these are projects that span multiple years and were not intended to be completed within a single year. A number of them depend on preparatory work, sequencing, cross-departmental agreement, workforce capacity and, in some cases, the availability of funding.

From a Department of Justice perspective, the most significant area still in development is the introduction of Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Orders (DAPN/Os). These new civil protection orders and notices involve complex reform requiring new policy, legislation, court processes and operational models across multiple agencies. I am on record about the challenges that have been encountered in developing these measures. However progress is being made and officials have undertaken detailed learning from pilots in England and engagement with Scottish colleagues and are working closely with PSNI, the Courts and the voluntary and community sector to develop a Northern Ireland-specific, victim-centred model. The intention is to agree a preferred model by the end of FYR 2025/26, with a pilot planned for implementation in the second half of 2026/27.

I am also aware that there are also a small number of actions which are necessarily taking longer to deliver in full due to their complexity and cross-agency nature, but where progress is continuing. This includes work to improve the quality and timeliness of information sharing and referrals between the PSNI and Social Services. Progress is being made, but delivery is dependent on system readiness, workforce capacity and funding, and will continue over the remainder of the Action Plan period.