Annex

This Assessment was conducted from September to December 2021.

This report was prepared by the Office for Statistics Regulation and approved by the Regulation Committee on behalf of the Board of the UK Statistics Authority, based on the advice of the Director General for Regulation.

The regulatory team – Elise Baseley and Will Richardson – agreed the scope of and timetable for this assessment with representatives of NISRA in September 2020. Documentary evidence for the assessment was provided by NISRA

The regulatory team discussed and met with the statistics team in October 2021 to review compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking account of the evidence provided and research performed.

A key part of the assessment was talking to the people who use the statistics, to help us to understand the current value of the statistics, and where there is the potential to increase this. We approached known and potential users of these statistics and conducted nine interviews. These users worked in Departments within the NICS, the Northern Ireland Prison Service and Trade Unions. Our engagement gave us some insight into the extent to which the statistics meet different users’ needs and the extent to which users feel that the statistics’ producers engage with them.