Dear Mr Humpherson,

I am writing as Senior Statistician in the Northern Ireland Heath and Social Care (HSC) Business Services Organisation (BSO) on behalf of and with the approval of the Chief Executive.

BSO is a legally specified producer of Official Statistics and currently releases a range of quarterly and annual outputs related to its Family Practitioner Services (FPS) activities.

In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Statistics and Registration Act 2007, I would be grateful if your Assessment Team can assess the following publications against the Code of Practice for Statistics for National Statistics designation:

FPS General Dental Services Statistics for Northern Ireland – Quarterly/Annual

FPS General Ophthalmic Services Statistics for Northern Ireland – Quarterly/Annual

FPS General Medical Services Statistics for Northern Ireland – Quarterly/Annual

FPS General Pharmaceutical Services Statistics for Northern Ireland – Quarterly/Annual

FPS Statistics for Northern Ireland – Key Facts – Annual

FPS Prescription Cost Analysis for Northern Ireland – Annual (frequency under review – may move to monthly)

 

We had previously flagged to OSR, via NISRA, that we would like the assessment to take place in second half of 21/22 and recently met with Dr Anna Price to scope out the requirement. At that meeting, we felt that the optimum time to begin the assessment would be Jan 22.  We look forward to working with the assessment team on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Mayock

Head of FPS Information Unit

 

CC:    Karen Bailey, Chief Executive (Acting) BSO

Peter Wilson, Director of Operations BSO

Orla Donachy, Asst Director FPS BSO

Siobhan Carey, Chief Executive NISRA

Dr Tracy Power, Director of Analysis NISRA

Ruth Fulton, Head of Statistical Support Branch NISRA

Mark Pont, Assessment Programme Lead OSR