Part of Ministerial Statement – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 4:30 pm on 30 June 2020.
Standing Orders are clear: when a Minister is due to deliver an oral ministerial statement, that Minister:
"shall make a written copy of the statement available to members".
It will not be delivered to the media first. It should not be. It has been established practice and convention in the House that Ministers deliver statements to the House rather than issuing them as press releases and then coming and reading them out in the House. I will have the Speaker's Office write to the Chair of the Committee outlining the behaviour that is expected from Executive Ministers in issuing statements. I hope that that satisfies the Member.