To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to outline the changes they have identified for a future good relations strategy.

Mrs Little-Pengelly

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer questions 6 and 13 together. As Members will be aware, the Together: Building a United Community strategy reflects the Executive's commitment to improving community relations here between people of different political, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Since its launch in 2013, we can all recognise that considerable progress has been made, with a number of headline action targets having been fully achieved. Progress continues to be made towards meeting other targets in often complex areas of work. We know that work remains to be done, however, and we want to ensure that our approach to good relations meets the needs of everyone in our society. We acknowledge that, since the first T:BUC strategy was launched, our society has become increasingly diverse. There is therefore a need to ensure that our approach to good relations effectively engages all those who live here and, in turn, creates a truly united society. The final draft of the Together: Building a United Community review's report is under development by officials. We expect recommendations to be submitted to us shortly. Those recommendations will help shape the starting point for designing a refreshed approach to good relations and inform the timeline for its development.

Ms Ferguson

I thank the deputy First Minister for her answer. What will be the impact of the inclusion of the cross-cutting commitment to "Peace" in the draft Programme for Government?

Mrs Little-Pengelly

I thank the Member for her question. Sadly, we see instability globally. We see a lack of peace and how that has such a detrimental impact on any place. Indeed, it remains the case for here. We absolutely need there to be that underlying peace agenda in everything that we do. That is why we made the decision that, for Northern Ireland, there would be a cross-cutting, underlying mission to ensure the stability that allows us to deliver. Moreover, that is why, since I came into post, we have been working incredibly hard to create that stability to allow the Northern Ireland Executive to deliver. If we are to deliver against our Programme for Government commitments and meaningfully change people's lives for the better, we need that stability and a united approach to driving positive change.

Mrs Little-Pengelly

I thank the Member for his question. There are similarities, no doubt. Very often, such sentiments are based on prejudice, bias and a lack of understanding. There are many similarities, but there are also a number of differences. It is important that any approach taken on the way forward be sufficiently nuanced to take into account and understand the impact on people and to provide support and help. We can tackle the underlying issues through prevention, education and the projects that I mentioned. What it is that we need to do is to make sure that we include everyone across society so that everyone feels that they can play a positive role as part of our united community moving forward.

While I agree with him to some extent, there are aspects that require a distinct and particular approach while we gather all of that together under our overarching aim of building a united community.

Mr Middleton

I agree with the deputy First Minister: a lot of good work has been done through T:BUC . Does she agree that any review needs to ensure that programmes reach those who are often harder to reach, including Protestant/unionist/loyalist (PUL) communities in my constituency of Foyle?

Mrs Little-Pengelly

I thank the Member for his question. It is incredibly important that people in every part of our society feel that they can play a positive role moving forward, no matter where they are from, what they believe, what their background is or what their identity is. That absolutely includes those from the loyalist community, who often have been and are vilified without good reason. Many in the loyalist community play an incredibly important role in communities and organisations, and they will play a positive role in the future of this place. The Member is absolutely right. One of the characteristics of the recent challenges that we had on the streets was that many of the people who were engaged in that activity were not involved in those projects and organisations. Therefore, it was difficult to speak with those young people in particular to encourage them to come off the streets and get involved in more positive projects. That is the coalface of that type of work, and we need to engage with those young people, no matter how difficult it is. We are determined to support the fantastic organisations and agencies that work at the coalface to really support and bring about peace.