AQO 650/16-21

Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 27/10/2016
Answered On Date: 15/11/2016
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Justice what research exists that shows the positive or negative outcomes on crime and community relations in areas where there is community funding for addressing paramilitarism and organised crime.

Answer:

The Fresh Start agreement and Executive action plan are a new approach to tackling paramilitarism and organised crime. We have not done anything like this before. The action plan is based on the comprehensive Report of the Three Person Panel, which was the product of their extensive consultation, research, and informed consideration of the issues.

Fresh Start, and the Panel report, stress the importance of building capacity and empowering communities to support them in completing the transition away from paramilitary activity. We want to support community programmes aimed at achieving that goal. Of course, such interventions must be effective and we will need to properly evaluate the outcomes achieved. We will be putting in place arrangements to monitor and evaluate the impact of programmes that we provide funding for and I would hope that we will deliver positive outcomes, including in terms of crime and community relations.