Governance
Democracy and Government
General election 2017: A detailed look at the result in Northern Ireland
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 (318), Labour (262), SNP (35), Liberal
Transferred votes in the March 2017 Assembly Election
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 votes to meet the quota and
The representation of women in public life: where does Northern Ireland stand (now)?
In the context of International Women’s Day and following the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 2 March, we have updated a previous article on the representation of women in public life.
Justice
What are ‘Family, Drug and Alcohol Courts’ and are they effective?
The draft Programme for Government contains a commitment to running a pilot family drug and alcohol court in Northern Ireland. Such courts have been used in England for some time, but what are they and
The courts and the EU Referendum: a week of action
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 and reflects on how they relate
Seen but not heard: children ‘sexting’
Rapid technological changes have caused the norms and methods of children’s sexual behaviour to evolve. Much screen-based media use now involves accessing interactive social networking sites such as Facebook and Snapchat. This access, particularly via
Planning
Planning in a new environment
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?
A new mandate, a new Environment
Local government underwent significant structural change in 2015 with the number of councils reducing from 26 to 11, and the transfer of many functions from central to local government. This has brought changes to the
Statistics & GIS
Fatal and serious road traffic collisions in Northern Ireland
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 killed or seriously injured, is an
An insight into Northern Ireland Constituency Profiles
The Research and Information Service (RaISe) has just produced updated 2016 Constituency Profiles for each of the 18 constituencies in Northern Ireland. This article looks at why and how these profiles are produced.
A Demographic Profile of Northern Ireland in 2016
This article presents a brief demographic profile of Northern Ireland, showing emerging trends in the population, and comparisons with other United Kingdom (UK) countries, the Republic of Ireland, and the European Union (EU).