By Daiva Repečkaitė, Sabrina Zammit, Evy Coeckelbergs and Julian Bonnici

Over €1.15 billion has been distributed in direct orders under the Abela, Muscat and Gonzi administrations. Under Joseph Muscat, a single ministerial portfolio – Family – awarded €410.5 million in direct orders without a competitive tender. For Robert Abela’s government, the Environment & Energy Ministry has taken over, with €110 million.

A new Amphora Media analysis of all the direct orders & tenders published between 2010 and 2025 reveals that the Family, Health, Environment, Education, and Home Affairs ministries are the most lucrative portfolios for contractors to accumulate millions without a competitive process. 

Top spenders of direct orders according to ministerial portfolios under the last three administrations:

*Gonzi-era figures are based on disclosed amounts for 2011–2013 only; 2010 records largely lacked stated amounts

N.B: In Malta, ministerial portfolios, government agencies and other independent entities change over time– they can be merged and split between government terms as well as during reshuffles.

To address challenges with direct comparison across different administrations, Amphora Media looked at the first keyword in each ministry’s name (like “Transport” or “Justice”) to categorise the “portfolio item”.  We then tracked how much these entities spent on direct orders over time. 

The analysis does not cover portfolios that were merged with larger ministries (for example, when tourism was merged with foreign affairs in 2024).

Which contractors accumulated the largest sums under the different portfolios?

The Family Ministry, under different administrations and iterations, is where some of the eyewatering large direct orders are issued. 

The largest beneficiary during the period was the JCL and MHC Consortium, which received €273.6 million for Management Services of the New Hospital/ Residence. This was the largest single direct order issued over the fifteen-year period.

Another 11 beneficiaries of direct orders in this portfolio made over a million in direct orders over the period:

Care Malta Ltd (almost €61.8 million), Primecare Ltd (€10.1 million), Support Services Ltd (€8.5 million), Caring First Ltd ( €5.8 million), Age Concern Company Ltd ( €5.6 million), Healthmark Care Services Ltd ( €5.1 million), Malta Health Care Caterers (almost €4.8 million), X-Clean Ltd (over €3.6 million), Archdiocese of Malta Homes for the Elderly (€over €2.5 million), Villa San Francesco (nearly €2 million), and Falbra Ltd (€1 million).

The Environment Ministry is also among the highest spenders on direct orders. 

The United Equipment Co (UNEC) Ltd, part of Bonnici Group, was the top beneficiary, receiving over €32.2 million in direct orders for power generation, infrastructural works, industrial supplies, equipment procurement and more. 

More recently, the Shift News revealed that the government issued a €120 million direct order to a consortium led by the Bonnici Brothers.

Bonnici Bros Services was separately awarded early €3.5 million across direct orders for works on a shooting range under the Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation Ministry. 

It was flagged by the National Audit Office for flawed management and weak internal controls,  including deficiencies in documentation and procurement record-keeping.. 

The official explanation was that the shooting range works were fast-tracked to ensure completion in time to host an international sporting event. In response to the unfavourable NAO conclusions, the government insisted it was still “proud” of whoever worked on the project.

Within the Environment Ministry, Ozo Malta received the second most, with €9.6 million in a single direct order for the “supply of administrative/operational services” to Wasteserv.

The Health Ministry is another major distributor of direct orders. Drugsales Ltd was the top beneficiary, with over €23.5 million in direct orders for various medical supplies and equipment.

Technoline, which has been accused of money laundering in connection with the Vitals hospital concession corruption case, is among the top 10 recipients of direct orders from the Health Ministry. Over the period, it received almost €4.7 million in direct orders for various hospital supplies.

The company was acquired by Ivan Vassallo with a loan from Vitals Global Healthcare. Prosecutors allege that Technoline Ltd was fraudulently acquired by Gateway Solutions Ltd using funds linked to the Vitals hospitals concession, allegedly structured through a loan arrangement. 

Investigators alleged that the company was “destined to be owned by former chief of staff Keith Schembri and ex-minister Konrad Mizzi, among others”, according to court reporting. 

In 2024, the court upheld an asset freeze against the company. Technoline received direct orders worth over € 226,000 from the Health Ministry post the asset freeze.

Technoline was also among the top contractors for the Agriculture Ministry, receiving over € 215,000 for animal health supplies. These were issued before the charges. 

In response to the findings, a lawyer representing Technoline wrote asking “to ensure that you differentiate between a direct order sic et simpliciter and a purchase order because of and as a result of, contractual obligations.” Procurement from Technoline was classified as direct orders in the government gazette

“My client is fully operational according to law and is administered by a Court-appointed administrator,” the lawyer representing Technoline explained, adding that the company’s representatives are not “ allowed to reply to any question put to them, which question might somehow directly or indirectly refer to, or be linked with, or referenced to the pending proceedings in Court.”

Beyond Technoline, Smart Care Pinto received more than €22 million in a single direct order for long-term care beds. Infrastructure Malta, a government agency, received direct orders worth over €7.7 million.

In Home Affairs, the largest beneficiary was GO, the telecommunications company.  Gold Guard Security is also among the top providers, with one direct order worth €1.3 million. Amphora Media has previously reported on the concentration of security contracts among several providers, Gold Guard Security being one of them.

The Ministry of Gozo, which added planning to its portfolio in 2024, also issued direct orders in the millions. 

Cassar Fuel was the top beneficiary, with €6.7 million, including a single direct order worth €2.5 million, an extension of a previous marine gas oil supply contract won by tender.

Manoel Island Yacht Yard, which is not part of MIDI’s Manoel Island concession, received €2.26 million for vessel servicing, among other purposes.

In the Transport portfolio, the largest beneficiary was Link-2018 JV (reportedly a consortium between V&C Contractors, Schembri Barbros and Schembri Holdings), which received almost €2.7 million direct order, in addition to the €28 million tender it was awarded.  

Direct orders were also awarded to Enemalta – €3.9 million in total.

The ministries did not comment.

Consultancies & IT Providers

When ranking suppliers by the amount received under each portfolio, the analysis showed that consultants, including IT providers, lawyers and others, were often the largest beneficiaries of direct orders.

Notably, Mifsud Bonnici Advocates made nearly €346,000 in direct orders for legal services between 2016 and 2022. Amphora Media has reported on how Aron Mifsud Bonnici’s tax evasion and money laundering charges were extinguished after he reached an out-of-court settlement under a new legal mechanism, while he continues to face separate charges in connection with the Vitals case

Asked about this, Aron Mifsud Bonnici replied, “My firm was not the authorities’ preferred choice. The longstanding and dominant pattern of direct procurement of legal services by Maltese public entities has always centred on larger, traditional commercial law firms, which have received direct instructions from government consistently across successive administrations — before, during, and after the period your questions reference. My firm’s engagements during that period represented a temporary broadening of the pool of firms instructed, not a displacement of the established pattern.”

“It is the norm, not the exception, for legal work involving specialist expertise or urgency,” he wrote, adding about the Vitals case that “A conflict of interest requires competing interests that compromise the integrity or independence of a decision or of a professional’s conduct. No such competing interests are identified. The question simply juxtaposes two separate and unrelated matters — the Vitals case and direct orders for legal services — and invites the reader to infer a connection. None exists, and none has been established in any forum.”

A breakdown of ministry spend in these areas is below:

• Finance Ministry: FTI Consulting, a US-headquartered company, emerged as the top supplier for the Ministry of Finance, with €3.4 million in direct orders. A direct order of over €2 million was also issued to Oliver Wyman, an American consultancy. Aside from foreign consultancies, the ministry and entities under it spent €1.2 million on Tal-Lira.
  
• Justice Ministry: Directed multi-million sums to Calamatta Cuschieri & Co, a financial advisory (including €3.2 million in a single direct order) and a number of security companies: Signal 8 Security, Kerber Security and G4S Community Services were among the top 20 beneficiaries.
  
• Culture Ministry: with €1.8 million in a single direct order, the top beneficiary was software supplier European Dynamics Consortium, a multinational company.
  
• Economy Ministry:
  • Gauff Consultants received €1.4 million in direct orders;
  • Wyzer Ltd – a software consultancy co-founded by the government’s AI taskforce member Abdalla Kablan, was contracted to provide services to Malta Business Registry for over €1.2 million.
    
• The Office of the Prime Minister: Exigy Ltd was the largest beneficiary, with nearly €1.2 million. Moreover, PTL Ltd received a single direct order worth €557,272.
  
• Agriculture Ministry: Loqus Services was the top beneficiary, receiving €773,135. Separately, Loqus Business Intelligence, not registered as a company on MBR but appearing as the group’s brand, received €137,875. The group provides IT services;
  
• Energy Ministry: This portfolio’s top contractor was Darttek, with €378,704.

• Tourism Ministry: Although most top-20 contractors are corporate, there is one individual name, Marika Micallef. She received a total of €105,000 in direct orders;
  
• Social inclusion/ equality Ministry: In 2021, KPMG received a €138,000 direct order in this policy area; Labour politician and activist Desiree Attard was contracted for over €49,000 via direct order to serve as legal advisor to the Human Rights and Integration Directorate..
  

The Public Works Ministry: Awarded JF Group, which provides staffing with over €128,000 in direct orders received over 2024.

In tendering by portfolio, over three-quarters of tenders are concentrated in the hands of the Department of Contracts, making comparison with the distribution of direct orders difficult. Infrastructure Malta is the runner-up with under 9% of tender volume.

Over the period spanning 2011-2025, construction work benefited from more spending than any other tendering area, with €1.6 billion. It was followed by medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (over €724 million) and health and social work services (over €676 million).

The Government and the National Audit Office did not reply to the questions sent.

• Amphora Media analysed every direct order and tender published in the government gazette between 2010 and 2025, covering three administrations and fifteen years of public spending.
  
• Over €1.15 billion was distributed through direct orders — a non-competitive channel reserved by law for emergencies — alongside €5.6 billion awarded through tenders.
  
• Direct-order spending spikes around elections. It peaked at €410 million in 2017 – the year of the snap election, Egrant allegations, and assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia — almost a third of the entire 2011-2025 total.
  
• A single 2017 contract, worth €273.6 million, was awarded to the JCL and MHC Consortium for works at St Vincent de Paul Residence. It is the largest direct order in the dataset and was flagged by the National Audit Office for multiple irregularities.
  
• Companies linked to the Bonnici Brothers — reported beneficiaries of a recent €120 million direct order for Mater Dei works — have won multi-million-euro direct orders across administrations, including €32 million in 2024 alone and a shooting-range contract that the NAO later flagged.

A new analysis by Amphora Media of every direct order and tender between 2011 and 2025 – spanning the administrations of Lawrence Gonzi, Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela – reveals how over €1.15 billion has been distributed through direct orders.

Over the same period, €5.6 billion was awarded through tenders, which are subject to far greater scrutiny and transparency. In 2025 alone, around €494.6 million was spent on tenders.

The figures span three administrations and fifteen years of public spending. Together they reveal a procurement culture in which a mechanism designed for genuine emergencies has become a routine — and largely unscrutinised — channel for distributing public money.

What are direct orders?

Direct orders, also known as direct contracts, are termed as “negotiated procedure without prior publication”. They help authorities react to emergencies, save time and reduce red tape and are permitted only in exceptional circumstances: extreme urgency or technical or artistic reasons making only one operator suitable to supply the goods/ service.

To preserve a degree of public accountability, the law requires every contracting authority to publish a list of direct orders over €5,000.

Direct orders have faced criticism as a non-competitive method for spending taxpayers’ money. The National Audit Office has flagged the considerable use of direct orders and has called for them to be used solely in “exceptional circumstances”.

Still, there is no single repository of direct orders; instead, the government publishes them biannually in the government gazette, a digital repository without a user-friendly search interface. The government rejects requests to provide such information to Parliament. 

Using a large language model developed with NotebookLM*, Amphora Media analysed all the direct orders & tenders issued between 2010 and 2025, to discover how the public procurement mechanism is used and who benefits.  

*Details on our methodology can be found at the bottom of this article.

The Election Effect: Over €600 Million In Direct Orders Issued Around Election Seasons, €410 Million In The 2017 Election Year

One pattern cuts across the administrations: direct order spending rises in and around election years. 

In 2017 – the year of the snap election, the Egrant revelations, and the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia – direct orders peaked at €410 million, accounting for almost a third of all logged direct-order spending across the entire fifteen-year dataset.

In 2021, the year ahead of the March 2022 general election under Abela, they reached over €87 million, and then around €76 millionin 2023, the year after the vote. 

In 2024 – the last complete year included in this analysis and the year of the MEP & Local Council Elections – the figure was close to €91.2 million.

Direct orders vs Tenders

Direct orders are not the only public procurement channel, and not even the largest. Across the same fifteen years, tenders accounted for €5.6 billion, but are subject to far more scrutiny.

Opentender, a website maintained by a consortium of research institutions, shows that the number of issued tenders peaked in 2025 at 1,210 – twice the 2024 figure and several times above the number recorded during the last years of the pre-2013 PN administration.

Tender activity spiked during the 2017 and 2022 elections, in 2023 and in 2025, averaging more than 1,000 per year, against an overall annual average of 674 (2010-2025).

The total value of tenders peaked in 2024, the year of the European Parliament and local council elections, at over €1 billion. 

The post-election years 2018 and 2023 saw tender values of nearly €550 million and over €724 million, respectively. 

Abela, Muscat, Gonzi: How different administrations dished out direct orders and tenders

Amphora Media’s analysis covered three different administrations: the PN administration under Lawrence Gonzi (Prime Minister 2008-2013; the analysis covers 2010-2013), and the PL administrations under Joseph Muscat (2013-early 2020) and Robert Abela (2020-present). 

It should be noted that data quality across the administrations differed.

Robert Abela (2020-2025*)

*The 2025 figure is mostly incomplete, as part of the direct orders were not published in time for the analysis.

Direct orders under the Abela administration total €391.4 million, an average of more than €65 million per year. 

The peak years include: 2024 (€91.2 million); 2021 (€87 million), the year before the March 2022 general election, and 2023 (€76 million), the year after the election.  In 2022, the year the election was held, the distribution dipped to almost €60 million.

To put this growth in context: almost €9 million was spent on direct orders in 2011. Adjusting for cumulative inflation (29.29%) – that would be roughly €11.5 million in today’s money – well below what the government spent in 2024, some €91.2 million.

Who’s benefited under Abela?

United Equipment Co (UNEC) Ltd, a machinery importer and part of the Bonnici Group, emerged as the largest single recipient of direct orders with €32.1 million. 

More recently, the Shift News revealed that the government issued a €120 million direct order to a consortium led by the Bonnici Brothers. 

The Bonnici Bros Services was also the beneficiary of nearly €3.5 million in direct orders under the Education & Sport Ministry for works on a shooting range. 

The National Audit Office flagged the shooting range project for poor project management, weak internal controls, and verbally authorised contract variations. 

Temping and security staff provider Ozo Malta emerged among the top 5, receiving almost €9.9 million. Amphora Media previously reported on contractors like this and how they have become an embedded feature in public procurements.

Direct orders flow between government entities. Under Abela, Infrastructure Malta collected over €7.7 million in direct orders, and Wasteserv Malta made close to €1.3 million this way.

The government did not respond to the questions sent.

Direct orders under the Abela administration

According to Opentender, the Abela administration has seen the average “Good Procurement Score” decline over the years. 

The supplier awarded the largest amount in tenders was Nexans Norway AS (over €185 million for the manufacturing and installation of a subsea cable). 

It was followed by Support Services Ltd (over €169 million for nursing and residential care), which shares the same ultimate ownership with James Caterers Ltd. The third was Kore Catering JV (over €152 million,  a joint venture between the James Caterers/JCL side and the db Group.

Joseph Muscat (2013- January 2020)

Direct order spending first ballooned under Muscat, totalling €771 million across his tenure (2013-January 2020) – an average of €110 million per year, and a figure no administration has matched yet.

In 2012, the government spent roughly €11.5 million on direct orders. By 2014, the first full year of the Muscat government, direct orders jumped to nearly €37 million.

The number of direct orders peaked at €410 millionin 2017, the year of a contentious election heavily influenced by the Egrant saga.

By far the largest beneficiary was the JCL and MHC Consortium, with €273.6 million awarded in 2017 for works at St Vincent de Paule. This is the single largest direct order in the 2010-2025 dataset.

The National Audit Office flagged the contract for multiple irregularities. The justification for not issuing a tender was that “competition was absent for technical reasons and for reasons of extreme urgency”.

After that, the next five top beneficiaries were Care Malta Ltd (care homes), Lyons Care (also care homes), Drugsales Ltd (importer of pharmaceuticals), Primecare Ltd (care homes), and, separately, Drugsales Ltd – Iklin.

Church entities also received multi-million direct orders during this period: the Archdiocese made over €5.5 million in 2016-2017. 

During this time, ElectroGas Malta Ltd, a consortium comprising SOCAR Trading, Siemens Project Ventures, and GEM Holdings (representing the Gasan Group and Tumas Group won the bid to run Malta’s LNG operations. Under the Muscat administration, Siemens received more than €2.5 million across its branches.

Direct orders under the Muscat administration:

The Good Procurement Score rose towards the end of Muskat’s mandate and was higher than his predecessor’s.

According to Opentender, the largest beneficiary of tenders under Muscat was Excel Sis Enerji Üretim Construction, which received nearly €158 million.  

Founded in 2019, the company was initially embedded in an investment structure involving Maltese holding companies linked to Joseph Portelli, Joseph and Mark Agius, and Daniel Refalo (CTJ Holdings, JOGIUS, and DTX Holdings.”

The runner-up was Link-2018 Joint Venture (an entity that appears to be linked to construction contractors, Asfaltar Group, nearly €82 million) and also a significant beneficiary of direct orders later under Abela (€4.7 million).

The next were the Italian-owned Building Energy Technologies Ltd (over €69 million, awarded in the same roadworks tender as Excel Sis), Kosta Joint Venture (over €53.5 million) and RRMalta JV (linked to Bonnici Group, over €53.5 million) according to Opentender,.

Kosta Joint Venture is led by Polidano Bros. Ltd, and reportedly involves Philip Agius and Sons and Central Asphalt Limited. Josette Schembri, the wife of former PM chief of staff Keith Schembri, is a shareholder in Carmel Limited, the sole shareholder of Central Asphalt.

In response to Amphora Media’s questions, Polidano Group’s representative wrote that “The joint venture was set up in 2012 solely for the purpose of submitting [the Coastal Road, circa €27 million] tender, in line with standard industry practice, and was formalised following the award of the contract.”

“Polidano had no interaction with Ms Josette Schembri; neither did she have any involvement in the management or operations of the joint venture,” the group’s representative added, emphasising full compliance with the regulatory framework and explaining that Central Asphalt was brought in “on the basis of its established track record in road-building works”.

Lawrence Gonzi (2010-2013)

Direct-order data for the Gonzi administration is available in full only for 2011 and 2012.  For 2010, few direct orders were issued, and their amounts were not stated. The largest number of direct orders was issued for the supply of trees. 

According to the disclosed figures, the Gonzi administration was distributing €20.4 million in direct orders over two years.

Palumbo Shipyards was the largest overall recipient of direct orders during 2011-2012, with close to €4 million. Rolls-Royce emerged as the runner-up, with €1.4 million, spread across two years. 

A striking feature of the period is how often direct orders went to foreign suppliers: Isis Innovation in the UK, now Oxford University Innovation (which is Oxford University’s technology transfer company), EBSCO Information Services BV (a provider of research databases), or Elsevier Information Services (an academic publisher and provider of research information and analytics services).

Direct orders under the Gonzi administration

Under Gonzi, the Good Procurement Score remained largely stagnant and below the score obtained under Muscat.

Within the 2009-2012 range of Opentender’s data, the top supplier in tenders was Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor A/S (nearly €183 million, energy engineers). The runner-up was J V Degremont SA / CCC-CMR (€57 million, sewage treatment works). B.E.V. JV Consortium, composed of Vassallo Builders Group, EFACEC, and BTA International, came third (almost €41.6 million), followed by Polidano Brothers Ltd (over €35.3 million). 

Detailed questions sent by Amphora Media to the Office of the Prime Minister, the  Department of Contracts and relevant ministries had not been replied to by the time of publication.

How did we do this analysis?

A comprehensive database of direct orders does not exist. Amphora Media built one by extracting structured data (awardee, awarding institution, amount and year) from the government gazette PDF files, using a large language model. 

The team manually verified a sample of direct orders and tenders, and corrections were made when discrepancies were detected.

Issues found in the data included: amounts & awardees not stated, figures presented as rates, differing currencies, typos, and spelling variations 

Records with missing amounts, figures presented as rates, or unclear awardees were excluded from the totals. 

The dataset runs until October 2025. The government gazette had by then recorded €4.3 million in direct orders – this is incomplete, the data is currently being published and will be added to the dataset.

It’s a message we’ve heard before. A focus on mental health and the introduction of a new hospital were offered in both the 2017 and 2022 ruling Labour Party’s electoral manifestos. Malta has had a mental health strategy in place since 2020.

The government promises ‘transformation’, but is it delivering on key mental health needs?

“None of us can feel secure unless we know that mental health is taken as seriously as physical health by our healthcare systems,” the Prime Minister said in his 2023 speech at the UN.

“To help provide [the needed] reassurance, in Malta we have implemented a comprehensive mental health strategy to build capacity, address causes, and offer continuing support to individuals with mental health needs, and their families,” he added.

His wife, Lydia Abela, also proclaimed, “Going for a mental health check-up should be as normal as going to see your doctor.”

For Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela, the Government’s strategy is based on the protection of mental health in every aspect of society: “Mental health care is a national priority. We believe in one healthcare system, and the first step to breaking the stigma is to combine healthcare that includes mental health as well as physical health.”

However,  when conditions in Mount Carmel hospital, the facility that currently provides inpatient treatment for acute cases (among other services), were criticised, Minister Abela told journalists that “we’re talking about a ward that is giving refuge to people who would otherwise have problems on the streets”, adding that “these are not patients, these are not persons who have been committed to a mental institution”, and are free to leave.

“Many of these people will be suffering from what is known as a dual diagnosis [substance use disorder (addiction) combined with a psychiatric disorder], but their acute phase of the psychiatric disorder is over.”

What is Malta’s state of mental health?

The share of Maltese who reported emotional or psychosocial problems over the past year is 67% – far higher than the EU’s average of 46%. Of those who did, Malta reported a larger share of those who did not seek or find help.

According to Eurobarometer 530, roughly one in eight Maltese respondents saw a psychiatrist for their mental health problems over the past year, and 7% saw a psychotherapist.

A third of Maltese respondents reported they or their family had experienced difficulties accessing mental healthcare – a higher proportion than across the EU. Over half of them complained of long waiting lists and high costs, and a third tried to wait out the problem.

According to the government’s consultation paper, over 15% of adults live with a diagnosed mental disorder – anxiety is the most common among them.

Between 2010 and 2024, Malta recorded 437 suicides (365 male, 72 female). This peaked at 35 in 2021. Comparatively, Malta’s suicide rate is low.

In 2024, there were 26 suicides among residents (22 male, 4 female) and 6 among non-residents (5 male, 1 female), the highest non-resident count on record.

The number of people using services at Mount Carmel has steadily increased over the years, almost doubling from 1,129 in 2010 to 2,171 in 2024.

Meanwhile, the number of persons using Mount Carmel’s inpatient services (both men and women) has increased and exceeded pre-pandemic levels, suggesting continued reliance on hospitalisation.

The number of helpline users, and the number of persons making use of community mental health clinics grew as well.

According to the National Youth Council’s 2018-19 survey, many young people in Malta believed there were insufficient mental-health services, and fewer sought help than the number of those who needed it. Subsequent awareness campaigns have been implemented to increase help-seeking, though publicly reported data confirming an increase in service uptake remain limited.

Key mental health services are provided in the following facilities:

• During the first year of its operation, the Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team, which can address acute mental health crises without hospitalisation, received 276 cases, and 17 of them had to be hospitalised;
• The Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) served 409 patients in its inpatient service in 2024 – the number has been increasing since 2022;
• The number of children aged 10-17 using inpatient services jumped between 2015 and 2016, initially peaked in 2017 before starting to decline before and during the pandemic, and grew again to 120 in 2024;
• Usage of inpatient psychogeriatric services leaped from 42 in 2023 to 169 in 2024;
• As of 2021, there were eight hostels housing 35 mental health patients; data from 2025 shows that 152 people live in mental-health-supported accommodation in Malta, showing NGOs carry a major share of long-term psychiatric housing;
• The use of outpatient services at various clinics soared five times between 2021 and 2022 and grew to 23,429 users in 2024;
• Helpline usage jumped by 29% between 2023 and 2024;
• Patients needing help with eating disorders were predominantly female throughout the years. The number of patients using residential services has been declining, but the use of outpatient services has bounced back post-pandemic, reaching 262 in 2024, the largest number since 2014. A small number of patients used day services. 

Noticeably, men make up roughly 83.5% of suicides in the data. This reflects the overrepresentation of men in other areas.

Between 2010 and 2024, 17,358 men utilised services at Mount Carmel Hospital, compared to 7,593 women.

On the other hand, according to an OECD report, depression is more commonly reported to affect women and people on low incomes.

Addictions & Dual Diagnosis:

As noted in the mental health strategy and reiterated by Minister Abela, “Mount Carmel Hospital is partially serving as a place of last resort and final safety net for a significant number of individuals who… do not require hospitalisation in a mental health institution”.

“This situation places further strain on the already stretched resources and can detract attention from seriously ill mental health patients who require hospitalisation.”

Some estimates suggest that dual diagnosis patients (addicts) may constitute between a third and a half of Mount Carmel Hospital’s patients.

For example, the 2023 annual report from the Commissioner for Mental Health found that around 37 patients subject to involuntary admission were found to be homeless.

A study published by the Ministry for Social Policy and Children’s Rights stated that 1,927 individuals were treated for ‘problem drug use’, with the primary drug predominantly being heroin. In 2022, Malta registered four overdose deaths.

Department of Health’s data shows that as of 27 October 2025, 240 patients (176 male, 64 female) were admitted for addiction treatment. Men made up about 73% of all inpatient admissions for addiction treatment.

Community mental health clinics (Paola, Qormi, Floriana, Mtarfa, Mosta, Qawra) handled cases of drug addiction, alcohol addiction, gambling disorder, and dual diagnosis. The Bormla Community Mental Health Clinic separately reported dual diagnoses cases: it handled 45 males and 34 females this year.

Alcohol addiction cases are concentrated among older men (50+), particularly in Qormi and Mtarfa. Drug addiction cases span up to age 77, indicating ongoing treatment needs in older adults.

Figures from Sedqa, Malta’s national agency for substance misuse, show the number of cases worked with, including both inpatient and outpatient interventions, has fluctuated over the past decade, with inpatient cases falling sharply from 287 in 2011 to 119 in 2020, before rising again to 313 in 2024.

Meanwhile, outpatient cases have steadily increased, reaching 1,737 in 2023, and more people started using Richmond Foundation’s neuropsychiatry services.

Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) handled nine primary addiction crises in 2025: alcohol (3), cannabis (3), cocaine (2), and polysubstance abuse (1). It also handled 15 secondary addiction-related cases (mainly alcohol and cannabis). Overall, at least 24 CRHT contacts involved addiction. Cases span from 20-year-olds to men in their 70s.

Children & youth:

Malta has among the loneliest teenagers in the EU, according to the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (2022).

Among 11-year-olds, 11% of boys and 16% of girls in Malta reported feeling lonely most of the time or always, placing them among the higher-ranking EU countries for loneliness in this age group. For 13-year-olds, 13% of boys and 27% of girls reported frequent feelings of loneliness, again ranking Malta above the EU average. Among 15-year-olds, 19% of boys and 30% of girls reported feeling lonely, higher than in other small countries such as Cyprus and Slovenia.

Although the situation for 15-year-olds is somewhat less severe compared with some other EU countries, the proportion of adolescents reporting loneliness remains concerning. Data on 15-year-olds’ mental health well-being indicate that Malta also ranks relatively low within the EU.

UNICEF data based on estimates from the IHME, Global Burden of Disease Study, 2019 shows that more than one in six of Malta’s adolescents (aged 10-19) had a mental disorder and that over 7,000 children and teenagers were in need of care. 

In response, specific services target young people:

• The Child and Young People’s Services  at St. Luke’s Hospital offers multidisciplinary services available by referral from a general practitioner;
• The Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Emergency Services offers emergency services for young people aged 3 to 18 years;
• The Crisis Intervention and Home Treatment team offers an intensive intervention to young people recently discharged or require extra support;
• The Generic child and adolescent mental health clinics offer an assessment and intervention to all young people aged 3-18 years;
• Family Focused Clinic provides a service to children and young people whose mental health is being negatively impacted by family dynamics;
• The Anger Management Group Therapy trains young people to control their anger outbursts better;
• The Young People’s Unit at Mount Carmel Hospital separates young patients between the ages of 12 and 18.

Malta’s two public education institutions, the University of Malta and MCAST, run their own mental health services. According to official data, 33 MCAST students are currently in active follow-up with the Paola mental health clinic (19 males, 14 females). The University of Malta’s Health and Wellness Centre recorded 4,165 student consultations since 2020, with 44 students seen in 2024.

Non-Maltese residents:

A Mental Health Strategy for Malta 2020-2030 acknowledged that “The risk of admission to the psychiatric in-patient facility, Mount Carmel Hospital, for non-Maltese persons is 2.2 times that of the general population, whilst for persons from low and middle-income countries residing in Malta, the admission rate is 5-fold that of the general population”.

The Commissioner for Mental Health’s 2023 report states that among patients subject to involuntary admission, almost 30% were non-Maltese (188 patients), and over half of them came from non-European countries.

How does Malta invest in mental health?

In the mental health strategy, the government acknowledged that “the focus of the mental health sector regretfully remains somewhat hospital-centric” while community care services were “generally understaffed”.

A 2022 study stated that substantial reform in mental health services only started during the pandemic, despite attempts starting in the early 1990s. “Past attempts at reforming this sector were stifled due to insufficient and unsustained political commitment, leaving it direly under-resourced,” the authors wrote.

The budget for mental health services has been gradually growing: from more than €42 million in 2019 to €71 million in 2025. However, the demand for outpatient services skyrocketed between 2021 and 2022, with an increasing overall trend.

Mount Carmel Hospital is the institution that provides inpatient mental health services, residential treatment centres, community mental health centres, and outpatient clinics.

Budget documents over the years show that investment in the Mount Carmel hospital skyrocketed in 2020, then declined, and picked up again in 2023, when “acute psychiatric hospital” became a separate expense category. Crisis intervention’s budget has been stable since 2019, except for a temporary dip in 2022.

The Commissioner for Mental Health noted that, as of 2023, the lowest-quality treatment wards suffered from “poor facility upkeep, poor ventilation, lack of designated smoking areas, lack of activities and privacy in the bathroom and toilet areas, as well as in the sleeping areas.”

The Commissioner went on to call for “increased allocation of funds in the next national budget to better assist patients with a dual psychiatric disorder and substance misuse.” 

However, the only time substance abuse/ misuse is mentioned in the budget 2026 document is the allocation of funds for the Advisory Group/Committee on Substance Abuse. It will receive less money than in 2025.

The 2022 study showed that the sector suffers from a shortage of nurses and social workers – key staff essential for the desired transformation.

The study’s authors noted that the government was not leading the way in the reform – it reacted to pressure from the mental health commissioner, the National Audit Office, local media, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and professionals.

Politicians’ recent claims on mental health policy concerned promises of a ‘transformation’ in service provision with an inclusive, patient-centred approach. Robert Abela spoke of a mental health strategy that has already been implemented.

According to researchers, “The lack of sustained political commitment and investment greatly undermined mental health reform in the past, while strong advocacy from stakeholders was key to bring mental health back on the political agenda”. 

Since then, the government has promised to integrate physical and mental health, build capacity, and make the system more accessible. A range of services for children and young people is available to address the pressing needs of this population.

Meanwhile, data shows that Malta’s state of mental health is rather alarming: a significant share of individuals experiencing problems do not seek or find help, and available resources are not addressing key gaps: social isolation among adolescents, exclusion of migrants, and complex needs of substance addicts.

Allocations for mental health services have been increasing over the years, and funding for Mount Carmel Hospital recovered in 2024 after a decrease. However, crisis intervention, which experiences a high demand, has not seen an increase in its budget. 

Despite financial improvements, there is no evidence of earmarked budgets to address the most pressing needs, namely, training and recruiting more nurses and social workers to address the shortages of this essential personnel. Some efforts to recruit cultural mediators are included in the integration strategy.

Thus, although a reform has been taking place and resources have increased, the impacts fall short of a fully fledged transformation. The claim is only somewhat true.

This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund. The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.

In September, as the new school year began, Prime Minister Robert Abela said the government would “continue prioritising what is best for our children by maintaining strong investment in the education sector.”

However, the facts suggest a more complex story, one of broad participation and incremental improvement, but with a reduced local presence shadowed by stagnant achievement rates, regional inequities, and worryingly significant skills gaps, as flagged by key industries, which limit Malta’s future readiness.

“Our country must continue preparing a workforce equipped with the skills needed for the future, while remaining at the forefront of innovation, development, and progress,” the Prime Minister stated.

Investment

According to the latest budget estimates, the Ministry of Education’s spending was set at just over €1 billion, roughly 12.3% of total government expenditure.

The share of Malta’s education investment has decreased over the past decade (2013–2023). EU Commission data shows this decline both as a percentage of GDP (from 5.6% to 5.0%) and as a percentage of total government expenditure from 13.6% to 12.7% (now at 12.3%).

These are still above the EU average, but does the rate of investment match performance?

Malta’s Education Performance

Early school leaving, once Malta’s Achilles heel, has dropped dramatically, the third-largest decrease in the EU. The most recent figures put it at 9.5, just above the EU average.

In 2015, one in six young people aged 18 to 24 were leaving school without secondary qualifications. Fast forward to 2024, and the rate was only one in ten on par with education superpower Finland. 

O-levels:

The share of 16-year-olds sitting for the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC), or O-level exams, has climbed steadily over the past decade from 78.6% in 2004 to 91.1% in 2024, peaking in 2019 at 94.1% when the government scrapped exam fees.

Around 73.4% of candidates received at least five passes (Grades 1-7), considered the benchmark for completing secondary education. This is down from the peak 85.7% recorded in 2016, with MATSEC putting that down to the rising rates of absenteeism following the exam fee waiver.

The government has sought to address gaps through vocational education, which includes areas such as agribusiness, IT, hospitality, engineering technology, and health and social care. It was introduced in 2017, and in 2024, the percentage of students who took one or more vocational subjects stood at roughly 27.5%.

However, this only speaks to attaining basic qualifications.

In 2024, the latest available data, 42.4% of 16-year-olds achieved six passes between Grades 1-5 in key subjects: English, Maltese, Maths, one Science subject, and two additional subjects. The subjects qualify students for most post-secondary academic streams, from Junior College to University. Pass rates are up from 39% in 2023.

There is a clear disparity between institutions across Malta, with children attending church, independent, and Gozitan schools achieving far better performance outcomes than state school students.

Students who received a minimum of five passes with Grades 1-7:

Independent schools: 92%

Church schools: 84%

Schools in Gozo: 77%

State schools in Malta: 58%

Malta has one of the highest shares of students within private dependent institutions, 27.7%. MaltaToday has reported that prominent political figures and cabinet members, including Malta’s former Prime Minister, have elected to send their children to private or church schools.

A-levels and Intermediates:

The Matriculation Certificate refers to the A-levels and I-levels students take at around 18 years old. The certificate helps determine courses of study at the University of Malta, MCAST and other national and international institutions.

In 2024, 1,383 candidates obtained the Matriculation Certificate, with 1,178 from the 2006 cohort. According to official data (26.9%, roughly one in four 18-year-olds across Malta received their MC (21.1% of males and 33.3% of females).

The total number of registrations stood at 4,585. It has dipped since 2019, when it was 4,919 registrations, but this was when the government introduced measures to waive exam fees. 

A separate reform in 2012, which allowed candidates to qualify for the certificate over five year, also boosted registrations. However, reforms have also led to a spike in absenteeism, with an official MC report highlighting both reforms as an issue.

“[Absenteeism] is largely linked to candidates registering for exams before completing their full two-year course, often leaving them unprepared. As a result, candidates may struggle to attend or perform well in their exams, impacting their overall success,” it reads.

In the first session of 2024, around 20.2% of registrants reported absent.

So what about performance?

Around 40.3%-43.4% of all total registrants received As-Cs, lower than all the years recorded between 2019 and 2024. However, 2024 did perform third-best when accounting for absentees.

A full table can be found below:

MC First Session Performance: Grades A to C (2019-2024)

Absenteeism rates complicate direct comparisons of performance with results before 2019.

An analysis of absenteeism rates can be found here:

University of Malta:

The University of Malta (UM) now hosts roughly 12,500 students. Almost 9,600 are local students and roughly 2,900 are international. 

The total number of students is less than what it was in 2017 but has been showing an upward trajectory since. However, this is primarily due to the number of international students tripling from 947 to 2,886 in 2024.

The number of local students at the University has actually dropped from 10,831 in 2017 to 9,574  in 2024.

In 2024, 3,730 degrees were awarded, 1577 were undergraduate degrees, and there was a record number of 66 PhDs in a single graduation.

Students by locality: Top 10

MCAST:

MCAST absorbs many who do not complete the full MC.

In 2010, MCAST celebrated its first 63 graduates with a 63-degree qualification, a milestone marking the start of Malta’s national vocational tertiary system. 

By 2023, the latest available data, shows that there were 7,641 registered full-time students, with 2,806 graduates. There were 1,264 part-time students. Minister Clifton Grima said in an annual report that the rate of retention is 94%.

According to a tracer study from 2019, 84% of MCAST graduates find some type of employment. 

The Gender Gap: Females Outperform In Education, But Lower Employment

In almost all stages of education, female students outperform males.

Females consistently lead males in youth educational attainment, and this gap is growing. In 2024, the attainment rate was 92.5% for females, compared to 82.9% for males.

They also outpace males in tertiary educational attainment. This gap is also growing. In 2024, 56.8% of those with tertiary attainment were female, compared to 39.9% who were male.

There has been a slight reversal when it comes to lifelong learning. While females had also scored higher than males, this changed in 2024.

Figures from 2024 show:

In O-levels:

• Females have higher registration rates
• Females are more likely to obtain Grades 1,2,3,and 4
• Males are more likely to obtain Grades 5,6,7, and U.

In SEC:

• More females registered.
• 33.3% of female candidates obtained the full certificate. 
• 21.1% of male candidates obtained the full certificate. 
• Females get more As, Bs, and Cs across A-level and I-level.
• Males are over-represented in subjects like Maths, Computing, Physics and IT.

UM:

• Females made up the majority of graduates (1215 females and 825 males).
• Females made up the majority of PhDs and Master’s graduates (944 females and 588 males).
• Females make up the overwhelming majority of local students (7,645 females, 4,799 males).

MCAST:

• Males make up the majority of students (4,278 males, 3,362 females).
• Males make up 91% of students in the Institute of Engineering andTransport (IET).
• Males make up 86% of students in the Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT).
• Females make up the majority at the Institute of Creative Arts (ICA), Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS), and Institute of Community Services (ICS).

Yet, female employment rates remain lower across all age groups. That gap is narrowest in the 15-24 age cohort (52.8% to 48.5%) – and there still remains a 12% margin in the 25-54 cohort.

Education vs Employment

Despite performances or educational attainment, the National Employment Policy notes that “employers are seeking either more targeted or highly specialised skills than those readily available, even amongst MCAST and University of Malta (UoM) ICT graduates”.

The OECD also considers that Malta “faces labour and skills shortages, skills mismatches, and a high share of adults with low levels of skill”.

“A coherent system for producing and interpreting skills intelligence is yet to be developed in Malta,” the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training said in 2023, citing employers’ feedback that “lack of appropriate skills is a threat to Malta’s economic growth”. 

Today, key industries such as gaming employ significantly more foreigners than local residents, heavily relying on imported expertise and contributing to international migration.

In 2024, the Malta Gaming Authority stated that “barriers such as a lack of relevant qualifications and work experience persist” in the gambling industry.  The financial services sector is also experiencing an “ongoing skills shortage”.

In 2023 Malta’s Central Bank argued that  “educational and labour market policy should be redirected to address skill shortages, especially for highly specialised skills”. However, as noted in an Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) publication in 2021, “the educational system may be too rigid to accommodate the need for individual creativity to blossom and for innovation to be set free from a constrained thinking box.” 

Malta Chamber recently issued a statement calling Malta’s current economic landscape marked by “low productivity”.

Malta’s performance vs EU’s:

Malta’s education system performs below the EU and OECD averages in most international benchmarks, though it has made notable progress in equity and participation. 

In the PISA 2022 assessment, 15-year-old students in Malta scored below the OECD average in mathematics, reading, and science. Notably, there was no recorded improvement or decline in scores from 2012, hinting at stagnation.

The shortfall is particularly pronounced in reading, with the gap from the OECD average at 10%.

The overall pupil-teacher ratio stood at 9.0 pupils per teacher during academic year 2022-2023. The highest ratio was recorded in private schools, at 12.0 pupils per teacher, whereas the lowest ratio was in State schools at 8.1 pupils per teacher (Table 7). The EU average is 13.4.

Educational attainment levels among the total working-age population continue to lag behind those of most EU countries. Malta has one of the highest shares of people with a low level of education in the entire EU at roughly 35% but it is a similar trend to other Mediterranean countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal. 

When it comes to expected years of schooling, which is the average number of years a child can expect to spend in school or university, Malta ranks 48th globally at 16, but below Cyprus, Italy and many other EU countries.

When it comes to the average number of years of education, Malta ranked 33rd globally, behind Cyprus and Luxembourg.

The Prime Minister’s claim overstates Malta’s current position: access is strong; outcomes and skills alignment are not.

Malta has drastically reduced early school leavers, but is still slightly behind the EU’s target of 9%, set for 2030. MCAST and vocational educational training have also addressed gaps.

Education performance, despite significant continued investment, has stagnated; while absenteeism continues to grow, with almost one in six students sitting for their A-levels failing to even attend the session.

Meanwhile, there remain clear disparities in equity for educational outcomes. State school students are less likely to receive their basic qualifications than their independent, church and Gozitan counterparts – despite the significant spending.

Females, despite outperforming their male counterparts in education, continue to have less access to employment.

And while the number of registrations have grown, this is just about covering the base. Priority sectors, like the maritime sector, finance and gambling are flagging skills shortages. Employers are warning that the issue will put economic growth at risk.

In this context, the Prime Minister’s statement that Malta is preparing a workforce equipped with the skills needed for the future is misleading.

This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund. The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.

Five years later, the rhetoric has shifted. Standing before the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly during his second term as Prime Minister in June 2025, Abela claimed:

“When it comes to the absolute majority of the reforms, we took the report and implemented it lock, stock and barrel.”

“[Malta] is an example of best practice when it comes to reforms.”

But does the record back him up?

At the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly in June, Prime Minister Robert Abela made a series of statements on reforms, rule of law, and press freedom.

On Venice Commission recommendations:

• “I am very proud to say that we implemented the Venice Commission report in full, apart from some very minor aspects, where unfortunately our opposition opposed.”
• “By 2021, we finished a whole raft of reforms which had been suggested to us. We had absolutely no issue with the Venice Commission. I think the Venice Commission cites us as an example of best practice when it comes to reforms.”

On the safety of journalists and the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia:

• “We have done an overhaul of our institutional setup following that case. (…)I think many other countries could look at us as an example and consider us as best practice when it comes to the implementation of the best rule of law practices. I think we have learned from that case and implemented robust reforms in practice.”
• “We fully recognise the essential role that journalists play in a healthy democracy. It is part of our broad commitment to ensure that journalists can work freely and safely,” he said.

The Venice Commission is the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters. In 2018, in the wake of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Venice Commission recommended several reforms in the justice sector, including:

• Dismissals of judges and magistrates should not be made by Parliament;
• The judgments of the Constitutional Court finding legal provisions unconstitutional should have erga omnes force (which means that they should apply beyond an individual case);
• Parliament should be strengthened by tightening rules on conflicts of incompatibility, notably as concerns appointments of MPs to Officially Appointed Bodies;
• An increase in MPs’ salaries, allowing them to focus on parliamentary work.

In 2020, the Venice Commission reminded Parliament to act on decisions where the “Constitutional Court [finds] a legal provision unconstitutional”, and issued several recommendations on the appointments to key enforcement positions.

This, notably, introduces, as an anti-deadlock mechanism, the election of the Chief Justice by the judges of the Supreme Court in the absence of an agreement of two-thirds of the MPs for his or her election, and that the names of the three candidates should be published when the Judicial Appointments Committee transmits them to the President.

In its detailed opinion that same year, it criticised the ‘rushed’ adoption of some suggested legal changes, without proper consultation.

The latest Venice Commission opinion on Malta was issued in 2021 and related to substantial administrative penalties.

A 2024 rule of law report by the European Commission, which takes note of the recommendations by the Venice Commission, said “some further progress in pursuing efforts to improve the efficiency of the justice system”, but stressed that “anti-corruption recommendations issued following the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have not been implemented yet.” 

According to the report, there was “no progress on establishing a robust track record of final judgments” in corruption cases.

Malta continues to perform poorly according to the EU’s latest justice scoreboard:

• Despite having more lawyers per capita than most EU countries, Malta fared worst in the EU in terms of lawyers’ independence. 
• Malta was third-worst in terms of the use of digital technology by courts and prosecution services.
• The estimated time to resolve judicial cases in Malta is among the longest.

Neither the Venice Commission opinion nor the Rule of Law report on Malta contains the words “good” or “best practice”.

The idea appears to originate from a Politico ‘Brussels Playbook’ sub-heading, titled ‘Best Practice Malta’, regarding an interview with then-EU commissioner Didier Reynders. Abela had tweeted that sub-heading, and then-justice minister Edward Zammit Lewis referenced it in a Times of Malta op-ed in 2021.

Among the Venice Commission recommendations, the erga omnes principle, or at least an obligation for the parliament to remove unconstitutional laws, remains entirely unimplemented, as we have already reported.

Recent judicial reforms have also courted controversy. Under a new law, Bill 125, ordinary citizens can no longer directly petition a magistrate to initiate a magisterial inquiry and must instead file a police report, waiting six months before approaching the courts.

This, the EU’s rule of law report notes, “has given rise to strong criticism from some stakeholders about its potential impact on the prosecution of high-level offences” that will “effectively close off an important avenue for accountability and justice in Malta”.

Media aspects: Daphne Inquiry Recommendations Remain Unimplemented

Between 2024 and 2025, Malta rose in the RSF media freedom index, but the authors noted:

“In 2021, the conclusions of a public inquiry into investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder listed an exhaustive list of reforms that the government has been reluctant to implement.

The inquiry urged the government to establish a legal framework to protect journalists, guarantee self-regulation of the profession, and reform the Freedom of Information Act to curb the culture of secrecy. It also called for fair distribution of state advertising, among other measures.

It further recommended creating an independent commissioner for journalism and amending the constitution to recognise journalism as a pillar of democracy, alongside the individual’s right to access information from the state.

A bill on the protection of journalists, submitted to the Parliament, is stuck in the first reading. A public consultation on legal changes affecting journalists is ongoing.

The European Commission’s Rule of Law report noted that there was “Some progress on adopting legislative and other safeguards to improve the working environment of journalists, and no progress on access to official documents”.

Abela’s spokesperson did not reply to our request for comment.

Despite some progress recognised by institutions, Venice Commission’s reforms are still implemented selectively. Authorities confirmed to the Rule of Law report that nothing is being done about the universal applicability of constitutional rulings. This is not a minor aspect, as it affects legal certainty for victims and has profound implications for human rights.

The idea that Malta is a rule of law ‘best practice’ comes not from the Venice Commission, but from Politico’s Brussels Playbook – something that Abela acknowledged when this idea first came out in 2020, but not when delivering his address to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.

Amphora Media did not find any evidence that “best practice” was said elsewhere, and our requests to the Prime Minister to clarify the claim were ignored.

The commitment to ensuring that journalists can work freely and safely has yet to yield evidence, and concerns about the justice system’s effectiveness on the ground persist.

In light of this evidence, the Prime Minister appears to continue with the selective approach he advocated for as a Labour leadership candidate, rather than the “lock, stock and barrel” approach he currently claims to apply. The claims voiced in the assembly are misleading.

This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund. The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.