Governance Blog Archive
Here you will find an archive of Governance Blog articles published before 1 May 2022, divided into their relevant categories.
Brexit
Please note: This version of the Brexit and Northern Ireland reading list has now been superseded. For the very latest version, please see here. The Assembly’s Research and…
Environmental regulation currently experienced by Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (RoI) is greatly influenced by European Union (EU) policy frameworks. While some frameworks, such as the…
This blog article examines the similarities and differences between the planning systems north and south of the border on the island of Ireland. It is based on a more…
Democracy and Government
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill returns to the House of Commons this week. MPs will consider the Bill in a Committee of the whole House. The Bill repeals the European…
The Westminster general election of 8 June 2017 resulted in a ‘hung parliament’, with the Conservatives as the largest party but without an overall majority. The result was: Conservative…
Transferred votes are an extremely important part of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system. In the 2017 Assembly Election, only 18 MLAs had a sufficient number of first preference…
Justice
In September 2021, Clare Bailey MLA introduced the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill to the Assembly. The Bill passed Second Stage on 12 October 2021 and would require…
In 2016 a man called Lance Hart shot his wife Claire and daughter Charlotte outside a swimming pool in Lincolnshire, England, before turning his shotgun on himself. Some of…
Last month, a new law came into force in England and Wales making upskirting a criminal offence. Upskirting involves taking a photo or video under a person’s…
Planning
This article explores the temporary planning measures introduced as a response to COVID-19 across the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI). Some of these measures have, and will, require…
This blog article examines the similarities and differences between the planning systems north and south of the border on the island of Ireland. It is based on a more…
The planning system has undergone much change recently, so what are the new structures and how has the balance of responsibility shifted between central and local government?…
Statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
It is difficult to grasp the full extent of what is portrayed by road traffic collision statistics. Each statistic represents a human being and, in the case of those…
Please note that the Constituency Profiles have been updated with a new layout and are available on a new page here. The Research and Information Service (RaISe) has just…
Please note: we have posted a new version of this blog article using the most recent data, see here. This article presents a brief demographic profile of Northern Ireland,…