Official Statistics
Official statistics are central to good government, the delivery of public services and evidence based decision making in all sectors of society.
The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 was introduced on 1 April 2008 with the aim of enhancing levels of public confidence in official statistics. At the same time, the UK Statistics Authority was established to oversee the production of statistics throughout the UK and is 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.
The UK Statistics Authority has published a Code of Practice for Statistics for all public bodies that produce official statistics to adhere to. The Office for Statistics Regulation is the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority. It provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK.
The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 does not allow for the Code of Practice for 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 effect on 1 April 2009 and includes details of when pre-release can occur, who is entitled to access, for how long and under what conditions.
The Office for Statistics Regulation 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 effect on 1 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 Statistics.
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
Publications
The following publications present information on annual participation in core and regular library activities, collected via the Libraries NI Activity Database.
The database was established in April 2012 to capture information on core activities (Class Visits, Got IT, Reading Groups, Rhythm and Rhyme, Storytime) and was extended in 2013/14 to include information on regular activities (Genealogy, Go ON, Job Clubs, Knit and Natter). It was further developed in 2016/17 to include additional regular activities (Creative Writing, Mindful Colouring, Tea and Newspapers). In 2017/18 Genealogy was no longer delivered as a regular activity.
Information from the database was not available for the years 2018/19 to 2021/22 but returned in 2022/23 for the following activities which were redefined as core: Class Visits, Clubs, Got IT, Go On, Reading Groups, Reminiscence/Storytelling, Rhythm and Rhyme and Storytime.
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16
2016/17
Future publications
Details on future statistical publications can be downloaded from the link below. Publications are listed by the month or the season they are to be released. Actual dates of release are added to the list at least two weeks before publication.
Statistical Publication Schedule
For any enquiries about the Libraries NI publications, or to receive notification of new publications, please contact us at officialstatistics@librariesni.org.uk