Latest news with #Stormont
The Independent
a day ago
- General
- The Independent
Ombudsman has received 40 complains of ‘police predatory behaviour'
Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman has received 40 reports alleging 'police predatory behaviour', Stormont has heard. Justice Minister Naomi Long said the Ombudsman Marie Anderson's office receive around eight such complaints a year, and has not indicated that the number is increasing, but that there is a 'steady flow'. Ms Long was speaking during Assembly Questions for her department. Sinn Fein MLA Danny Baker put to her that a recent Criminal Justice Inspection report noted that as of July 2024, the Police Ombudsman's Office had 19 active investigations of abuse of position for sexual purposes. He asked whether the minister intended to introduce a 'more comprehensive vetting process and a code of conduct'. Ms Long pointed out that the employment of police officers and vetting is not a matter for her department. She said: 'However when you look to this report, abuse of position, concerns and complaints, there are recommendations on how justice organisations should address matters and the timeframes within which they should do so. 'The PSNI, Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland and Public Prosecution Service all have responsibilities in addressing the abuse of position that referenced. 'Given that those organisations are operationally independent from me as justice minister and my department, I can't comment on progress of the recommendations, however I do agree that it is important that robust and effective processes are in place to ensure accountability and safe guarding. 'Given the vulnerability of some of the people in contact with police, it is important that we have absolute confidence that those individuals involved in that unethical behaviour do not draw other ethical officers into disrepute.' Asked by Ulster Unionist MLA Alan Chambers for the number of cases of abuse of position for sexual purposes that have been investigated in the last 12 months, compared to the previous 12 months, Ms Long said she would not have access to that information directly. 'However since 2021, PONI has advised me that they have received around 40 complaints of what they described as police predatory behaviour, and say that they continue to receive an average of eight cases per year,' she said 'So they have not suggested that that has significantly increased but there has certainly been a steady flow.'
BreakingNews.ie
a day ago
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
NI Ombudsman has received 40 complains of ‘police predatory behaviour'
Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman has received 40 reports alleging 'police predatory behaviour', Stormont has heard. NI Justice Minister Naomi Long said the Ombudsman Marie Anderson's office receive around eight such complaints a year, and has not indicated that the number is increasing, but that there is a 'steady flow'. Advertisement Ms Long was speaking during Assembly Questions for her department. Sinn Féin MLA Danny Baker put to her that a recent Criminal Justice Inspection report noted that as of July 2024, the Police Ombudsman's Office had 19 active investigations of abuse of position for sexual purposes. He asked whether the minister intended to introduce a 'more comprehensive vetting process and a code of conduct'. Ms Long pointed out that the employment of police officers and vetting is not a matter for her department. Advertisement She said: 'However when you look to this report, abuse of position, concerns and complaints, there are recommendations on how justice organisations should address matters and the timeframes within which they should do so. 'The PSNI, Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland and Public Prosecution Service all have responsibilities in addressing the abuse of position that referenced. 'Given that those organisations are operationally independent from me as justice minister and my department, I can't comment on progress of the recommendations, however I do agree that it is important that robust and effective processes are in place to ensure accountability and safe guarding. 'Given the vulnerability of some of the people in contact with police, it is important that we have absolute confidence that those individuals involved in that unethical behaviour do not draw other ethical officers into disrepute.' Advertisement Asked by Ulster Unionist MLA Alan Chambers for the number of cases of abuse of position for sexual purposes that have been investigated in the last 12 months, compared to the previous 12 months, Ms Long said she would not have access to that information directly. 'However since 2021, PONI has advised me that they have received around 40 complaints of what they described as police predatory behaviour, and say that they continue to receive an average of eight cases per year,' she said 'So they have not suggested that that has significantly increased but there has certainly been a steady flow.'
Belfast Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
DUP Minister: Onus on GAA to find funding if Government doesn't back Casement project
The Government is set to decide next week if it will contribute to the stadium's rebuild. If it decides not to provide significant funding, Gordon Lyons said it will then be up to the GAA to make a decision on whether to progress with a revised and 'affordable' plan. The Government is due to issue its latest Spending Review on June 11. There has been no indication yet whether it will commit any funding to the Casement project. Mr Lyons said the £62.5m promised by Stormont for the new stadium 'still stands'. 'I've made it very, very clear as Sports Minister that I want to see more money for sports infrastructure in Northern Ireland,' he said. 'What we do need to do is make sure any additional funding for sport in Northern Ireland is done in a fair and equitable way. 'I think we had a fair and equitable basis for the funding of sport back in 2011 when the funding for Windsor and for Ravenhill and Casement was set out. 'I welcome additional funding for sport, but it should be done on a fair and on an equitable basis.' Asked if the stadium rebuild would be 'dead in the water' should the Government refuse to add funding to that promised by Stormont and the Irish government on top of the £15m set aside by the GAA he replied: 'Ultimately it's up to the GAA, who are the lead on this project, to decide. 'There is £62.5m there. As I've said from the start, that funding stands. But as I've also said before, if they (the GAA) don't have the money they need to look at ways to make this more affordable. 'It would be incumbent on the GAA to look at the plans to see what it is they can afford, change those plans to suit the budget and work out how they want to proceed.' Mr Lyons was speaking as he addressed concerns over his own budget in the Communities department at Stormont. Plans for the 34,000-capacity stadium remain uncertain due to a major funding gap of around £150 million, with the overall cost of building the plans to an original design soaring to over £300m. Secretary of State Hilary Benn pulled the plug on ambitions of hosting Euro 2028 at Casement last September, saying costs had 'risen dramatically'. In addition to the £62.5 million committed by Stormont, the Irish Government has offered roughly £42 million on top of the GAA's own contribution. Yesterday Finance Minister John O'Dowd said he believed the UK government is in "solution-finding mode" when it comes to achieving the redevelopment of Casement Park. His upbeat assessment followed a meeting with Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones in London to discuss the Spending Review outcome. "I think I had a constructive meeting with the Treasury today and we covered the aspects of Casement Park and how important it is that Casement Park is delivered," Mr O'Dowd said. "The Irish Government have announced their funding. The GAA have announced their funding. The Executive has announced its funding. "It's now time for the British Government to announce theirs. "So, I think, in fairness to the Treasury, I am of the view that they're now in solution-finding mode. If they continue in that mode, then I believe we can have a successful outcome to this."
BBC News
a day ago
- Business
- BBC News
Casement Park: Government in 'solution-finding mode', O'Dowd says
The UK government is in "solution-finding mode" when it comes to resolving funding for the redevelopment of Casement Park, Stormont's finance minister has O'Dowd was speaking after a meeting in London with Treasury officials ahead of next week's Spending GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) ground has been lying derelict for more than a have been ongoing to determine if the government will make a contribution to the west Belfast stadium. A Spending Review, expected on Wednesday 11 June, will see the government lay out its financial plans for day-to-day spending for the next three has largely been viewed as the juncture when it confirms whether or not it will make a financial contribution to help deliver the stalled plans to redevelop the Gaelic games is estimated that it would cost at least £260m to build a new stadium, but only around £120m is currently Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has promised £62.5m from the Stormont executive, the GAA say it will pay £15m while the Irish government has pledged around £43m.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service who survived an IRA bomb attack
Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, who has died aged 94, was a central figure in governing Northern Ireland before and after Westminster imposed direct rule in 1972. From 1984 to 1991 he was head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and second permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office under Tom King and Peter Brooke. An outstanding administrator, Bloomfield was speechwriter and confidant to Stormont's last three premiers: Terence O'Neill, James Chichester-Clark and Brian Faulkner. A moderate Unionist who believed the old Protestant-dominated Ulster could be reformed, the only time he considered resigning was when Margaret Thatcher concluded the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement, reckoning it too bitter a pill for Unionists to swallow. Yet Bloomfield himself originated the phrase 'the Irish dimension'. The IRA branded Bloomfield 'the key administrator of British colonial policy', and in September 1988 came within a whisker of assassinating him and his family. Four rucksacks packed with Semtex and bullets were planted at his home at Crawfordsburn, Co Down, while Bloomfield, his wife and 18-year-old son slept. Two of the bombs exploded, badly damaging the house and burying Bloomfield's son under rubble. The detonator of a third failed. Police stepped over the unexploded device to reach the Bloomfields, hustling them out to hospital the same way. King put the family up in his apartments at Hillsborough Castle; they never returned to the house, but Bloomfield was back at work next day. When the IRA told senior civil servants to 'resign or face the consequences', Bloomfield retorted: 'Neither they nor I will be deterred from the duty we owe to our fellow citizens and democratic government.' Kenneth Bloomfield was born in Belfast to English parents on April 15 1931. From the Royal Belfast Academical Institution he read Modern History at St Peter's College, Oxford, which in 1991 elected him an honorary Fellow. He joined the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance in 1952, and during 1956 was private secretary to three ministers in turn: Brian Maginess, George Hanna and O'Neill. After visiting Washington with O'Neill in 1959, Bloomfield applied to lead the province's infant industrial development effort, and was appointed deputy director of the British development office in New York. While there, his wife won a houseful of prizes on The Price Is Right. When in 1963 Lord Brookeborough resigned as premier, O'Neill took over and made Bloomfield his deputy Cabinet secretary. The patrician O'Neill was eager for reform, but unsuited to bring it about. Bloomfield wrote speeches for him on the need to improve community relations which angered Unionist hardliners, as did O'Neill's unprecedented Belfast meeting with the Taoiseach Sean Lemass, which he helped arrange. As communal tensions began to rise O'Neill's Cabinet disintegrated, and the 1969 Stormont election was fought between pro-and anti-O'Neill Unionists. O'Neill's victory was unconvincing, and Chichester-Clark replaced him. When that August the Army was sent into Derry, Bloomfield attended the crucial Downing Street meeting. Wilson rated him 'the quickest drafter of good statements I have seen', and Home Secretary James Callaghan 'the brains of the outfit'. Callaghan's Tory successor Reginald Maudling moved meetings with Chichester-Clark from Whitehall to Claridge's, where Bloomfield dined 'loaded with plovers' eggs'. As the IRA began to assert itself, Unionist hawks put Chichester-Clark under increasing pressure, and in March 1971 he resigned. Faulkner, a moderniser who rated Bloomfield 'a thinker of the highest order', succeeded him. Bloomfield tried to keep the new premier off the television in such a sensitive climate, telling a persistent David Frost he was in the business of government, not entertainment. That July, with the security situation deteriorating, a reluctant Faulkner decided to introduce internment. He and Bloomfield flew to London for secret talks, but a journalist spotted Faulkner and the announcement – drafted by Bloomfield – had to be brought forward, with disastrous consequences. At this juncture Faulkner dined on game with Edward Heath at Chequers. There was not enough to go round and, Bloomfield recalled, 'just two birds, one burnt and tiny, remained' by the time the salver reached Lord Carrington and himself. With 'exquisite courtesy', Carrington swept the burnt offering onto his plate. The killing of 13 demonstrators in Derry by paratroops on Bloody Sunday, January 30 1972, 'blew the top right off the volcano'. Bloomfield worked up a reform package to rescue the situation, but on March 22 Heath told Faulkner and Bloomfield that Stormont would have to surrender law and order powers to Westminster, with Willie Whitelaw becoming Northern Ireland Secretary. Faulkner declared this unacceptable; next day his entire Cabinet resigned. Direct rule was imposed and Whitelaw took over, Bloomfield serving in a secretariat overseeing the Northern Ireland departments and legislation for the province. He rated working with Whitelaw 'one of the great pleasures of my life'. Bloomfield had a sizeable hand in the 1973 White Paper proposing an assembly elected by PR and a power-sharing executive. But Faulkner's hold on his party was weakening as Loyalist anger erupted at Stormont, Bloomfield watching from the gallery. The executive was formed in January 1974 with Faulkner as chief executive and Bloomfield its permanent secretary. He was left holding things together as Faulkner was deposed as Unionist leader. That May, with Labour back in government, the Ulster Workers' Council called a general strike. Bloomfield was caught up in a frantic round of meetings in Belfast and London which could not prevent fuel and power shortages; Ulster's deserted roads reminded him of the apocalyptic movie On the Beach. When the nationalist SDLP blocked efforts by Faulkner to open talks with the strikers through an intermediary, he resigned, Bloomfield drafting one more resignation statement. Faulkner recalled: 'We were climbing the marble staircase towards my office when Ken's proverbial restraint snapped and he broke down. I had not until this moment quite understood the depth of his individual commitment to a better future for Northern Ireland.' Left in limbo, Bloomfield was asked in 1975 to merge Northern Ireland's Departments of the Environment and Local Government and Planning. His main responsibility became the Housing Executive created to stop Unionist councils refusing to house Catholics. In 1981 he moved to the Department of Commerce (from 1982 Economic Development). His main challenges were the survival of Harland & Wolff, which 'needed a miracle', Short Brothers, and two newcomers, DeLorean and Learfan. DeLorean's plan to produce revolutionary gull-winged cars in Belfast had strong government backing, with ministers were 'particularly anxious to get something done for the Roman Catholic area of West Belfast which was, in many ways, the heartland of our problems,' Bloomfield recalled. John DeLorean accused Bloomfield of 'putting your arms around my throat' over the government's terms. Bloomfield likened DeLorean to 'the glamorous hero of a television soap opera', but with a tendency to 'humiliate and repel' the executives he hired. When the company went into receivership in 1982, DeLorean 'bared his teeth like a hunted animal'. Bloomfield was summoned before the Public Accounts Committee at Westminster to defend his department's handling of DeLorean, which had been lavishly funded despite warnings from the consultants McKinsey. He reckoned these hearings 'the nadir of my political life'. 'Even though most of the money had been spent before my arrival, I did feel acutely that Northern Ireland had been taken for a ride.' In 1984 he was appointed Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, responsible for 28,000 staff, and second permanent secretary at the NIO, spending half the week in London. Bloomfield hoped to concentrate on poverty, unemployment and community relations, but the dominant issue became the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Informal talks with the Republic were under way, but Dublin wanted a stake in the North and Bloomfield did not imagine Mrs Thatcher would wear this. When he saw the draft, he went through 'mental agony'; having considered resignation or a direct appeal to the prime minister, he poured out his concerns to King, but the die was cast. Bloomfield was heavily involved in setting up the International Fund for Ireland under the Agreement, lobbying to fit it into America's aid programme with the Reagan administration not keen. At the Agreement's Inter-Governmental Conference, he was often the only Ulsterman in the room. When eventually the Unionist leadership showed interest in an 'alternative' to the Agreement, Bloomfield got 'talks about talks' with Ian Paisley and the Unionist leader James Molyneaux to the point where King – who reminded him of the Incredible Hulk – could be brought in. The arrival in 1989 of Brooke, with 'phenomenal qualities of patience and diplomacy', in Bloomfield's view prevented the initiative breaking down. In retirement from 1991, Bloomfield served as the BBC's national governor for Northern Ireland. He chaired the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council and Legal Services Commission, and was a leading light in the Association for Quality Education, campaigning to retain academic selection. In 1992 he was commissioned to investigate dentists' pay, finding a formula to end a 28-week dispute. Late in 1997 Mo Mowlam asked him to become the Northern Ireland Victims' Commissioner. His report, We Will Remember Them, appeared in April 1998 as the Good Friday agreement was concluded. He did not recommend a conventional monument to all who had died in the Troubles, but community-based projects. The IRA wanted all its dead listed; others felt the best memorial would be to bring all the killers to justice. Bloomfield commented: 'It would be perverse if what I recommended turned out to be more divisive.' He achieved more from 1999 as joint international commissioner for the location of victims' remains. Bloomfield was appointed CB in 1982 and KCB in 1987. His autobiography, Stormont in Crisis, appeared in 1994. Kenneth Bloomfield married (Mary) Elizabeth Ramsey in 1960; they had a son and a daughter. Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, born April 15 1931, died May 31 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
