The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 was introduced on 1st April 2008 with the aim of enhancing levels of public confidence in official statistics. As a result the UK Statistics Authority was formed as an independent, non-ministerial government department directly accountable to Parliament. Its statutory objective is to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good.

The provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act also apply to Northern Ireland as do the powers of the UK Statistics Authority. In January 2009 the UK Statistics Authority published the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html

The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 does not allow for the Code of Practice for Official Statistics to include rules relating to pre-release access so such arrangements are set out in secondary legislation. The Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order (Northern Ireland) 2009 came into operation on 1st April 2009 and includes details of when pre-release can occur, who is entitled to access, for how long and under what conditions. 

The UK Statistics Authority will monitor the production and publication of official statistics in Northern Ireland and report any concerns to those responsible for them.

Official Statistics and Libraries NI

Libraries NI is listed as a producer of official statistics in the Official Statistics Order (Northern Ireland) 2012 which came into operation on 1^st April 2012. Libraries NI is therefore subject to the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and associated secondary legislation. Statistical staff from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are seconded to Libraries NI and are responsible for ensuring that the statistics they produce comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. It is anticipated that the first set of Libraries NI Official Statistics will be published in 2013/14.

The Libraries NI Statement of Administrative Sources lists the administrative/management systems that are used or potentially could be used in future in the production of official statistics.
Libraries NI Statement of Administrative Sources

The Libraries NI Statement of Compliance with the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order (Northern Ireland) 2009 gives details of our pre-release access arrangements.
Libraries NI Statement of Compliance

A list of pre-release recipients of Libraries NI Official Statistics publications is available at the following link.
Pre-release recipients of Official Statistics