Justice Minister Naomi Long has declared her commitment to reducing delays across the Criminal Justice System, calling it "one of the biggest challenges facing the justice system" and a key priority.

The Minister acknowledged that delay negatively affects victims, witnesses, the accused, and the confidence of the wider community.

The Minister outlined a multi-faceted approach, led by the Speeding up Justice programme, which takes a "whole system approach" to:

• Reduce avoidable delay.

• Reduce demand on the system.

• Free up capacity and look at more proportionate responses to offending. Minister Long highlighted the severe pressure on prisons, noting that the prison population is at an all-time high, with 41.1% of prisoners being held on remand. She stressed the need to "break this cycle", as time spent on remand can result in individuals being released with time served but having completed "no rehabilitation work".

To address the high remand rate, the Minister is seeking views on a bail support scheme that would initially seek to support women in the community while they await trial. If successful, the scheme would be rolled out wider.

She is also considering out of court disposals, stressing that this is not about "going soft on criminals", but about strengthening the tools available to the PSNI and PPS to divert some cases away from a busy court system. This aims to concentrate limited resources on the most serious offences.

The Minister concluded by stressing the need for a whole government approach to tackle upstream socioeconomic factors—such as poverty, mental health issues, and substance misuse—that disproportionately increase the likelihood of offending and place pressure on the downstream justice system.