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A blog from the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service

Governance Blog Archive

Here you will find an archive of Governance Blog articles published before 1 May 2022, divided into their relevant categories.

Brexit

An image showing lots of Brexit-related books in the Assembly Library
  Please note: This version of the Brexit and Northern Ireland reading list has now been superseded.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…
A photograph over Cuilcagh in County Fermanagh: a protected site that spans the border
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…
An image of the Peace Bridge in Derry/Londonderry
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 plenary chamber of the Northern Ireland Assembly
Please note that more up-to-date statistics on gender representation can be found in the RaISe research paper Who Runs Northern Ireland? A Summary of Statistics Relating to Gender and…
Students from Shimna College visiting the Northern Ireland Assembly
The Assembly Education Service engaged with more than 80,000 young people during the last mandate. The aim of this work is to inform young people about the work of…
An image of the Northern Ireland Assembly
Yesterday, we published a post which examined the 2016 Assembly election results in terms of candidates and voter turnout. This post, the second in the Election 2016 series, will…

Justice

An image of a statue of a woman holding the scales of 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…
A black and white image of a woman with her hand covering her face
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…
Image of a man holding a smartphone
    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

An aerial view of the Peace Bridge in Derry/Londonderry
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…
An image of the Peace Bridge in Derry/Londonderry
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…
Image of a planned urban landscape: Local development planning is now with local councils
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)

Figure 1: Map presenting time travel analysis in relation to the nearest type one emergency care department
Everything happens somewhere. How does the Northern Ireland Assembly’s in-house geographic information service help Members analyse and visualise complex data? Over 80% of data used by our public sector…