AQW 23748/22-27

Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 04/03/2025
Answered On Date: 10/07/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail any actions their Department is taking to tackle racism in South Belfast, given their responsibilities for racial equality and good relations.

Answer:

We, and the Executive as a whole, strongly condemn racism in all its forms. As recent events have shown, racism has a devastating impact on victims, their families and our society.

Whilst the immediate focus of our Department has been on making sure our communities and the people who live in them are safe, we must now focus on how we can tackle racism and hate as part of our wider good relations policies.

To support this, TEO provides funding of over £7million to local organisations and councils to support cohesion and integration, address good relations issues and reduce the potential for young people to engage in negative or anti-social behaviour.

Alongside our review of the T:BUC strategy, we have commenced work on the development of a new strategic approach to racial equality post 2025 and expect a key focus of this to be tackling racism and hate.

We have taken learning from other programmes which deal with societal issues and our focus is on preventative actions and effective interventions to change attitudes and behaviours.

We aim to launch a public consultation on a draft strategy later this year.