This letter was updated on 22 December at 3pm to include the date of publication of the statistics (23 December)
Dear Deborah
Thank you for contacting my team about an exemption from the Code of Practice for Statistics to permit a later release time for NISRA’s weekly deaths statistics for the week ending 18 December 2020. You propose to publish on 23 December to avoid publication of the statistics on Christmas Day.
Given the circumstances for publishing this release earlier than usual, I am happy to confirm exemption from the standard publication time of 9.30am to permit a later release time of 4pm for these statistics.
Yours sincerely
Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation