Governance Blog Archive
Here you will find an archive of Governance Blog articles published before 1 May 2022, divided into their relevant categories.
Brexit
This article updates a previous article on the negotiations around the Gibraltar Protocol. Gibraltar provides an interesting point of comparison with Northern Ireland in terms of arrangements following the…
John Locke once wrote, ‘we should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, signs of our ideas only,…
The Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol (‘the Protocol’) was the subject of a judicial review challenge at the High Court of Justice in Belfast. The hearing, which stretched over several days,…
Democracy and Government
The past seven days have seen significant developments in relation to EU referendum related action in the courts at both local and UK level. This article provides an update…
In recent years ‘Preventative Expenditure‘ (PE) has gained a high level of political consensus. There are many definitions, and this imprecision has resulted in departments sometimes claiming that all…
The May 2016 election was the last at which 108 Members would be returned to the Assembly. At the next Assembly election there will be a reduction in the…
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)
By Keara McKay & Thomas Procter This is a visualisation prepared and maintained by the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service (RaISe). It presents the spread of COVID-19…
This paper presents a brief demographic profile of Northern Ireland, updating a previous article on this subject in 2016. It shows emerging trends in the population, and comparisons with…
Please note: this article was edited on 11.2.20 with up-to-date GIS maps showing travel distances to GP practices for 2015 and 2020. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Day was established…