'It's actually not mine' - Justice Minister distances herself from her own department's policy, which she launched this week
A claim by justice minister Naomi Long that a policy she announced on Wednesday does not actually belong to her is “ludicrous” – and she should own her “deficient” guidance, UUP boss Jon Burrows has said.
New Department of Justice (DoJ) guidance for the PSNI – in force since July 1 – means police officers can decline to search someone of the opposite biological sex, whether they identify as transgender or not.
However, police must attempt to find officers willing to search detainees of the opposite sex – if the person is transgender and says they prefer to be searched by an officer “of the same sex as their predominant lifestyle”.
Earlier this week, Mrs Long’s DoJ issued its reasoning for introducing the “interim” measures on how police should deal with transgender detainees.
A 2025 Supreme Court ruling defined sex as based on biology – but the DoJ says the legal situation may be different in Northern Ireland due to the Windsor Framework.
Until the High Court makes a decision on an Equality Commission submission on the matter, the DoJ has put a temporary annex into the Police & Criminal Evidence (NI) Order (PACE), clarifying that officers can decline to search someone of the opposite sex.
It also requires police to attempt to find a female officer willing to search a male if his “predominant lifestyle” is that of a woman.
However, Mrs Long has now distanced herself from that policy, in response to a social media post saying that the minister “wants PSNI to find female officers ‘willing’ to intimately search transvestite men”.
Mrs Long said: “It's actually in the National Police Chiefs' Guidance not mine. It reinforces the right of any officer to refuse to search any person if uncomfortable, without detriment to their career”.
The minister has also suggested that she would take legal action over the News Letter's reporting of the issue, but said that would require “both resources and time, neither of which I have to pursue every occasion I'm misrepresented”.
The News Letter asked DoJ if the minister categorically stating that it is not the PACE Code C policy that police should attempt to find an officer of the same sex as the "predominant lifestyle" of a transgender detainee to conduct a search? Or, in plain English, to make efforts to find female officers willing to search males identifying as women, as the News Letter reported.
A DoJ spokesperson said: “As the Minister has already advised, the guidance that has been adopted by the PSNI is the NPCC guidance which has also been adopted by other UK police forces. The introduction of the NPCC guidance was supported by the Justice Committee following in-depth scrutiny and discussion. Officers have the right to refuse to search any individual without detriment to their career, so the Minister does not agree with those who claim that this puts officers in an invidious position”.
Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows told the News Letter: “It is ludicrous for the Justice Minister to divorce herself from guidance issued by her own Department - indeed issuing the PACE Codes of Practice is a statutory responsibility of the Justice Minister.
“The Minister may have lifted much of the guidance from a national policy document, but by adopting and publishing it she has ownership and responsibility of it.
“I am also confused as to why the Justice Minister states that her guidance ‘reinforces’ the national guidance that no PSNI officer or staff member will suffer any career detriment by refusing to carry out a search of a person of the opposite biological sex.
“This national guidance makes this explicit, by saying there will be ‘no career detriment’ to the officer who declines to do such a search - the Department’s guidance omits this clear statement.
“The rank structure in the police services creates a culture were it can be difficult for a junior officer to say to a more senior one that they do not wish to search a person of a biological sex. The Minister owns her own Departments guidance and the guidance is deficient”.
Independent unionist MLA Doug Beattie said the PACE Codes of Practice are issued and revised by the Department of Justice under the authority of the Justice Minister. “The revised Code C, Annex L, which came into force on 1 July 2026, incorporates guidance developed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). However, once adopted into the PACE Codes, it becomes statutory guidance in Northern Ireland and is the responsibility of the Department of Justice.
“The revised Code restores the principle that searches should normally be conducted by officers of the same biological sex as the detainee. Where a transgender detainee requests an alternative arrangement, efforts may be made to identify a willing officer to carry out the search, but no officer can be compelled to do so and refusal must not result in any detriment”.