To ask the Minister of Justice to outline any action she will take to ban pornography portraying strangulation and suffocation.

Mrs Long

The UK Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently making its way through Westminster, contains provision to criminalise the possession and publication of pornography portraying strangulation and suffocation. I have been engaging with the UK Government and intend, subject to Members' agreement, to extend that provision to Northern Ireland to ensure that similar protections are afforded here. The provision aims to strengthen existing protections provided under section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which extends to Northern Ireland as well as England and Wales and criminalises the possession of extreme pornographic images. Under the existing provision, an image falls within the scope of the offence where it portrays an act that threatens a person's life. However, the independent review of pornography commissioned by the previous UK Government and carried out by Baroness Bertin was concerned that images of non-fatal strangulation or suffocation may not be caught by the offence, having found no evidence of anyone being prosecuted for content on the basis of such images. Worryingly, the review also highlighted that strangulation and suffocation pornographic content is rife on mainstream platforms and is having real-world impacts on how people are having sex, particularly amongst young people. The provision proposed in the Crime and Policing Bill implements the recommendations of that review that depictions of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation should be clearly and explicitly captured in illegal pornography offences. Non-fatal strangulation and asphyxiation or suffocation is already illegal across the UK. As Members know, I provided for that offence in the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. However, its depiction in pornography normalises the behaviour and, as the review found, is having a malign influence on men and boys' perceptions of its real-world impact.

Mrs Long

Members will know that I am passionate about that. Where possible, I want to address serious sexual offending. In the previous mandate, I introduced a new domestic abuse offence that marked a step change in capturing controlling and coercive behaviour. I introduced new offences of stalking, upskirting, downblousing and cyberflashing and four new offences to tackle adults who pretend to be a child with a view to sexual grooming that bolstered the child grooming offences and are unique to Northern Ireland. I also created a stand-alone offence of non-fatal strangulation and enhanced protections around offences of the abuse of a position of trust and the disclosing of private sexual images. Those measures have added real, tangible and valuable protections, and the extension of the Bill will add to the cadre of offences that we are dealing with. It is important that people recognise just how serious the issue is, particularly for young people. The study that was done and the evidence that was presented to it showed that a significant number of young women around the age of 14 had already been subjected to suffocation and strangulation. Young men as young as 10 had asked teachers how they could safely choke girls during sex, and 13% of sexually active girls aged 14 to 17 had already been choked. If we do not get to grips with the issue now, we will see an epidemic of that kind of behaviour. It is putting young people's lives at risk: young women's lives, when they get involved with partners, and young men's lives, because they will end up in prison for serious offences.

Ms Ferguson

According to that research report, at the end of October 2025, there were 97 ongoing non-fatal strangulation cases in the Crown Court and 263 in the Youth Court and the Magistrates' Court. What engagement, if any, have you, Minister, had to date with the Minister of Education about the development of a targeted educational piece for young people on non-consensual strangulation?

Mrs Long

I have engaged with the Education Minister on child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation but not specifically on targeted advertising around non-fatal strangulation. Part of the issue is about the differing views that people have of how explicit our relationships and sexuality education should be.

If we have boys as young as 10 who are asking such questions of teachers, and if we have girls as young as 14 who are experiencing such behaviours, we need to intervene much sooner and have the conversations with them, not to strip them of their innocence but to protect them from those who are already being corrupted by what they see online on those quite extreme pornographic websites.

Young people need to be equipped with information so that they know that it is not normal behaviour. It is not expected behaviour but abusive and dangerous behaviour, and that message needs to be communicated clearly to young people in an age-appropriate way, recognising that such sites are increasingly available and visible to children as young as 10.

Mr Speaker

That concludes the time for listed questions. We move on to topical questions.