Dear Ed,
You will be aware of the decision made by ONS, NISRA and the other government departments to postpone or cancel all official statistics publications scheduled for release on Friday 9 September following the profoundly sad announcement of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. NISRA publications affected by this decision were subsequently re-scheduled for 9.30am on Monday 12 September 2022.
As a result it was necessary to extend the period of pre-release access for the ‘Perceptions of the Youth Justice Agency: Findings from the 2018/19 and 2019/20 Northern Ireland Safe Community Surveys’ publication beyond 24 hours, as recipients were already in receipt of the official statistics prior to the decision being made.
It was judged that in these exceptional circumstances the public benefit likely to result from the extension of pre-release access (as a direct consequence of the postponement of the publication) significantly outweighed the detriment to public trust in official statistics likely to result from such extended access. This means that the extension is permitted under paragraph 5 (1) (a) of the Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics Order (NI). The Northern Ireland Chief Statistician endorsed this judgement and the decision to postpone the publication.
I am writing to advise you as required under paragraph 5 (4) (b) of the Order. An equivalent note has also been added to the published pre-release access list (see attached).
Yours sincerely,
Joan Ritchie
Head of Analytical Services Group, Financial Services Division, Department of Justice
Related links:
Ed Humpherson to Joan Ritchie: Extension of PRA due to postponement of publications