NISRA Annual Business Plan 2026/27
NISRA Annual Business Plan 2026/27
WE provide trusted official statistics which helps us to understand the economy, population and society of Northern Ireland; independently produced data which help to monitor progress, make decisions and hold government to account; outstanding research to support policy makers and which makes sense of a complex world; modern, empathetic registration services that ARE enabling for our citizens; the census which meets the needs of Northern Ireland; analytical insights from management and real time information systems to guide responsive decision-making in the public good; the survey and data collection infrastructure which provides trusted, reliable insights on life in Northern Ireland; linked datasets which enable cross-cutting, ground-breaking applied research and analysis; analytical support to the data-led design, implementation & evaluation of policy by mobilising the expertise and independence of our analysts and NISRA’s statisticians.
Foreword
Philip Wales
Chief Executive & Registrar General
As Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and Registrar General for Northern Ireland, I am pleased to present our Business Plan for 2026-27.
The objectives that are set out on the following pages amount to an ambitious plan to strengthen the statistical, analytical, research and registration services systems in Northern Ireland: building on our successes and lessons learned during 2025-26 and reaching for the vision set out in our Corporate Plan 2025-29.
Momentum
As our Annual Report and Accounts will set out, NISRA’s performance during 2025-26 has given us critical momentum for the year to come. Although there were notable challenges throughout the year, NISRA provided important insights and analysis on the economy, society and population of Northern Ireland – helping to inform policy makers, decision takers and the general public.
Our registration service continued to meet a very high level of demand. The General Register Office processed nearly 120,000 certificate applications, exceeding target delivery timescales. Our research outputs continued to inform key decisions and provide both the motivation behind, and a critical baseline for, future policy. Although worthy of recognition on their own merits, our statistical, research and registration services were delivered alongside significant investment in our operating model.
- As part of our survey transformation strategy, work to move the Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey online progressed significantly in 2025-26.
- We secured the passage through the Assembly of the first primary legislation for the Registration Service in over a decade, including provision for Baby Loss Certificates.
- The roll out of our automation strategy continued – with more than 60% of NISRA analytical outputs now involving some automation.
- Our digital infrastructure also took a step forward with the establishment of a new NISRA IT team, and progress towards a new analytical platform.
- New analytical outputs – including a new public facing dashboard on the spending of the NI Executive – won accolades at the Analysis in Government Awards, while our wider dissemination strategy also made big steps forward, including through a refresh to our website, and the development of guidance tailored to defined user personas.
- And we continued to invest in our people: helping them to develop their capability and potential in a rapidly changing context.
NISRA also set down important foundations for our longer-term work plan during 2025-26. Notably, we won a five-year extension to our ESRC-funded Administrative Data Research (ADR) partnership. We were also successful in our application to the Transformation Fund to establish a Data Office which will strengthen the use and impact of data across Government. And we received endorsement from the Executive for our recommendation to deliver a Census of Population and Housing in 2031, working in partnership with National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These developments all provide important strategic direction for 2026-27 and beyond, and represent significant achievements in their own right.
Next steps
Our Business Plan for 2026-27 builds on the momentum that we achieved during 2025-26. Although the year has started under considerable budget uncertainty the plans set out on these pages seek to deliver on the core aims of our Corporate Plan. Subject to the funding arrangements we reach with the Department of Finance, our performance against these objectives will be NISRA’s measures of success for 2026-27.
As in previous years, the objectives set out on the following pages focus on delivering the statistical, analytical, research and registration services which are required to support the Programme for Government during the final year of this mandate. These include statistical outputs on core policy aims – including on hospital waiting times and economic productivity, on childcare and housing, on special education needs and climate change. They include the roll out of a new Baby Loss Certificate Scheme to recognise losses early in pregnancy and the preparations required for a Census Test early in 2027. Together, these amount to an ambitious programme of delivery.
To progress the aims of our Corporate Plan, NISRA will also continue to invest in our operating model during 2026-27. Building on the progress we have made in strengthening our strategic enablers, we will operate more efficiently and effectively, and deliver deeper analytical insight tailored to the needs of a wider range of users.
For our People, we will develop and implement a Learning and Development plan, informed by the recent Agency-wide skills audit; we will complete a review of our HR policies and evaluate our recent pilot recruitment process for Assistant Statisticians; we will commission and procure training courses for NISRA staff – covering both specialist and broader capability training; and we will engage proactively and constructively with the NICS Job Families work.
To strengthen NISRA’s legislative footing and authority, we will continue to bring the powers of the Deaths, Still-Births and Baby Loss Act 2026 into effect. We will progress secondary legislation to put the details of the Baby Loss Certificate scheme into law and bring it into operation. Under the auspices of the new Data Office, we will work to promote awareness of, and to identify limitations of, existing data sharing legislation. We will continue to work to implement the new Code of Practice for Statistics.
To strengthen the efficiency of NISRA’s operations, we will continue to work on our digital infrastructure. This will involve piloting our new analytical platform with cross-cutting, well-defined use cases and both preparing and implementing a phased rollout plan. We will build on the AI and Data Science training pathways which we have opened during 2025-26 to deliver and evaluate a number of AI and machine learning pilots. And we will continue to progress our automation programme – increasing the proportion of our activities which use reproducible analytical pipelines.
Building on our improvements in dissemination, we will deliver targeted user research and engagement activity to ensure our outputs are delivered in an appropriate, accessible form for our users. We will prepare a dissemination strategy and implementation plans. We will develop a single dissemination toolkit to support the new strategy, which explicitly considers NISRA’s varied stakeholders and users, and we will support adoption and roll out across the Agency.
Building our partnership working will be a priority for 2026-27. We will work closely with ONS and NRS to establish arrangements for the Census – starting with the Census Test in March 2027 – and we will work with ONS to ensure the future of UK labour market statistics. Through the new Data Office, we will strike up new partnerships with the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust and develop a new partnership between the Departments of Health and Education to deliver new ‘data pathfinder’ projects. We will also commence our new investment period under the ADR initiative – beginning to deliver on key data linkage projects to enable new research on important policy questions.
Finally, we will continue to develop our data assets: strengthening how we collect, store and mobilise data across the NICS. The new Data Office will prepare a new, wider Data Strategy, and commence ‘data pathfinder’ projects. We will develop plans for an update to the NI Measures of Multiple Deprivation and we will continue to work to develop our statistical infrastructure. We will also develop a new pilot ‘pulse-style’ survey as the next phase of our transformation of our survey estate.
Taken together, these objectives amount to an ambitious plan to deliver the statistical, research and registration services required in Northern Ireland, while responding to the opportunities and challenges of our operating context. It will undoubtedly be an important year for NISRA, and one which I look forward to leading and reporting back on.
Philip Wales
Chief Executive & Registrar General
Our organisation and purpose
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), which incorporates the General Register Office (GRO), is an executive agency of the Department of Finance. Our central purpose is to provide trusted and independent insights on life in Northern Ireland.
In delivering on this purpose, NISRA has become the principal source of statistics, analysis and research on the economy, population and society of Northern Ireland. Our outputs support decision makers in government, businesses, academia and among the general public by providing them with the best possible information on which to make important judgements. The statistics, analysis and research we produce enable us to monitor the progress we make towards the shared economic and social ambitions of the people of Northern Ireland.
In government, we produce a wide range of analytical outputs to support policy design, implementation and evaluation: helping to deliver better outcomes for the people of Northern Ireland. We independently monitor progress towards key objectives of the Programme for Government (PfG): supporting the effective operation of critical democratic accountability processes, free from political influence.
NISRA provides these services through a network of people embedded throughout the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) and the public sector more broadly. Over 550 staff work across 24 government departments, executive agencies and arm’s length bodies.
The Agency is directed by the Chief Executive with support from the Senior Management Team and the Agency Board. Our governance arrangements are set out in the NISRA Framework document and our strategic direction is driven by NISRA’s Corporate Plan – Statistics, Analysis, Research & Registration services to drive decision making for the public good.
We work with detailed and sometimes sensitive data within and across departments to identify and then answer key analytical challenges on topics ranging from the economy to the health service, from climate change to education. This increasingly involves important data linkage projects – combining information from different departments to support joined up policy making. We have a high-performing and professional field force numbering more than 200: helping to gather critically important intelligence on life in Northern Ireland.
A core part of NISRA, the GRO is responsible for the administration of marriage and civil partnership law in Northern Ireland, along with the registration of births, deaths, adoptions and gender recognition. GRO is also responsible for the maintenance of registration records and the production of certificates in relation to these events on request. GRO’s activities provide an up to date account of life in Northern Ireland, through the recording of key life events.
Every ten years NISRA conducts the Census of Population and Housing. The information collected provides detailed insights on our society, and is used widely inside and outside of government. It helps local government, health authorities and other organisations to plan and provide future services, and to allocate resources effectively. Following the release of key statistics from this programme, the data routinely feed into key population estimates and research to support policy making for the future.
The things we do
Our vision
Our vision is to deliver the key statistical, analytical, research and registration services which are needed to improve the lives of the people of Northern Ireland. We want to collect, analyse and publish the key information which users need to make important decisions, to the benefit of the shared economic and social objectives of government in Northern Ireland and the broader public good. Implementing this vision will involve:
Working to modernise our data collection and linkage services to produce the highest quality information possible on the economy, population and society of Northern Ireland: embedding modern, low-cost and high quality data collection processes which promote interoperability between datasets to maximise the potential for analytical insights from linked data.
Being innovative and proactive in our engagement: identifying and meeting user needs for new data and analyses, while continuing to produce trusted, valued statistical outputs, and working to deliver outputs in increasingly accessible, impactful ways.
Working across government and with academics to deliver high quality research outputs which address important questions in support of the Programme for Government.
Continuing to deliver first class registration and genealogical services to our customers, using modern, efficient and secure technologies, consistent with legislation and in line with best practice.
Developing and supporting our people so we can continue to foster an engaged, innovative, diverse workforce who are valued, supported and empowered to develop their careers in NISRA.
Through the delivery of excellent services and outputs, our vision will help NISRA continue to be a proud, confident, modern agency which is recognised for trusted and independent statistics, analysis, research and registration services.
How we will deliver on our vision
To meet these aspirations, our Corporate Plan sets out how we need to change our operations. These changes draw on NISRA’s recent experiences and on national and international best practice. They seek to learn from the proactive, positive responses of the statistical and registration systems to the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and the UK’s exit from the European Union.
More broadly, they reflect the way that modern statistics and registration services institutes aspire to work. They draw on our understanding of developments in the UK, Ireland and other international organisations which play a central role in these fields, identifying and adopting best practice in our context.
Strategic enablers
To deliver our vision for statistical, analytical, research and registration services in Northern Ireland, NISRA depends on a range of strategic enablers. These are central aspects of our operating context which govern our ability to deliver services for our users and stakeholders, and which – along with our financial position – determine our capacity for change.
As our most important asset, our diverse People are perhaps the key strategic enabler which help NISRA to deliver on our mandate and advance change. The Corporate Plan sets out our ambition to continue to invest in their advanced skillsets, to maintain and increase their engagement on important policy issues, so that they continue to feel proud to work in NISRA and of the public good which their activities facilitate. It signals our commitment to deliver an enabling digital infrastructure which empowers them to use their skills and capabilities efficiently and effectively.
The change we envisage will also require a renewed strategic approach to our data: how we collect data against a backdrop of falling response rates internationally; how we store, link and make available cross-cutting datasets which are interoperable by design. Our approach to dissemination will also play a key enabling role. We need to continue to address questions identified in dialogue with users and to publish our insights through increasingly accessible, impactful, user-focused methods.
NISRA’s capacity to deliver will also be shaped by our enabling partnerships. Working with analysts, operational services and domain experts across the NICS, the UK and international statistical systems will play a key role. In all this work, we need to ensure we have the right statistical, legislative and public approval to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.
Governance arrangements
The Chief Executive is the designated Agency Accounting Officer and is responsible to the Finance Minister and accountable to the NI Assembly for the Agency’s use of resources. The Chief Executive is responsible for the propriety and regularity of the Agency’s expenditure and for ensuring that the requirements of Government accounting standards and practice are met.
The Chief Executive ensures that the Agency observes any general guidance issued by DoF and puts into effect any recommendations by the Public Accounts Committee, other Assembly Select Committees or other relevant authority.
The Agency is subject to external audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland in concert with the Agency’s own Audit and Risk Committee (ARC). ARC includes two non-executive directors (NEDs), one of whom also acts as Committee Chair. Both NEDs are also members of the DoF ARC, providing considerable continuity of approach and direct oversight of Agency level governance.
The Senior Management Team and Agency Board assist the Chief Executive in the strategic management of the Agency and provide advice on major issues of policy. The NISRA Framework Document sets out further information on Corporate Governance arrangements.
Partners and ALBs
Nationally the Agency works in partnership with the UK Office for National Statistics, the Office for Statistics Regulation and the Government Statistical Service as well as collaboratively with the lead statisticians in the other regional administrations, and the Republic of Ireland.
Locally the Agency works in partnership with every district council in the delivery of registration services through the Local Council Offices. NISRA considers the various NI business and industry sectors to be some of its most significant stakeholders, given the Agency’s routine engagement with them in gathering economic data. Their views are represented specifically by the Department of Finance’s (DoF) Arm’s Length Body (ALB), the Statistical Advisory Committee (SAC) whose members are Ministerial appointees.
PfG Priorities
Underpinning all of the work NISRA does in supporting the Programme for Government is the PfG Wellbeing Framework, which uses statistics from across the agency to support the Executive’s decision-making process. NISRA will continue to develop and improve this public facing and transparent showcase for official statistics in Northern Ireland.
| PfG Priorities | NISRA Contributions to PfG Priorities |
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| 1. Grow a Globally Competitive and Sustainable Economy. |
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| 2. Deliver More Affordable, Accessible, High-Quality Early Learning and Childcare. |
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| 3. Cut Health Waiting Times. |
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| 4. Ending Violence Against Women and Girls. |
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| 5. Better Support for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs. |
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| 6. Provide More Social, Affordable and Sustainable Housing. |
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| 7. Safer Communities. |
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| 8. Protecting Lough Neagh and the Environment. |
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| 9. Reform and Transformation of Public Services. |
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NISRA Business Plan 2026/27
The Business Plan sets out our objectives and deliverables for 2026/27, which are grouped either as the delivery of our core business or under the Strategic Enablers set out in NISRA’s Corporate Plan. NISRA records Performance Measures in the Department of Finance Business Plan shown below, which are also nested within the NISRA objectives. Our objectives are largely formulated as our intended Outcomes for the next twelve months, which includes the Objectives and Deliverables / Performance Measures that we will take towards achieving those Outcomes.
1. Business Delivery
| Objective | Deliverable/Measure |
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| Deliver key civil registration services - births, deaths, marriages, civil partnerships, adoptions and baby loss certificates. |
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| Ensure future user needs for census statistics are understood. |
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| Provide high quality statistical information. |
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| Launch the Data Office consistent with funding objectives. |
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| Meeting regulatory standards. |
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| NISRA releases and publications are of high quality. |
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| Planning and Resource Management. |
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| The Agency will remain within allocated budget. |
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2. Engaged Ambitious Skilled People
| Objective | Deliverable/Measure |
|---|---|
| Learning and Development supports delivery of business objectives. |
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| Promote climate awareness across the Agency. |
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| Staff Engagement. |
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| HR Policies and processes are efficient, effective, inclusive and fair. |
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4. Enabling digital infastructure
| Objective | Deliverable/Measure |
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| Develop a Common Toolkit and pilot a new Analytics Platform. |
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| Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP). |
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5. User-focused Dissemination
| Objective | Deliverable/Measure |
|---|---|
| Promote best practice in dissemination and maximise the positive impact of NISRA’s outputs. |
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6. Purposeful Partnerships
| Objective | Deliverable/Measure |
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| Public Engagement. |
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| The public is aware of and trusts NISRA. |
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| Partnership Engagement |
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7. Strategic Data Assets
| Objective | Deliverable/Measure |
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| Data Strategy. |
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| Social Survey Transformation Strategy. |
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Financial Resources
NISRA’s opening Resource Budget for the financial year (FY) 2026/27 is:
| Opening budget | FY 2026 / 27 (£'m) | FY 2025 / 26 (£'m) |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries | 35.91 | |
| General Administrative Expenses | 7.44 | |
| Total Operating Expenses | 43.35 | |
| Income | (24.33) | |
| Net Operating Cash Budget | 19.02 | |
| Non-cash | 2.14 |
The opening indicative capital budget allocation is:
| Opening budget | FY 2026 / 27 (£'m) | FY 2025 / 26 (£'m) |
|---|---|---|
| Capital | 3.58 |
* Note - In the absence of an agreed budget, opening Resource and Capital budgets have not yet been issued by DoF.
Abbreviations
| ADR | Administrative Data Research |
| ALB | Arms Length Body |
| AD|ARC | Administrative Data: Agricultural Research Collection |
| ARC | Audit and Risk Committee |
| ASHE | Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings |
| BDR | Business Data for Research |
| CHS | Continuous Household Survey |
| DAERA | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs |
| DE | Department of Education |
| DfC | Department for Communities |
| DfE | Department for the Economy |
| DoF | Department of Finance |
| DoH | Department of Health |
| DoJ | Department of Justice |
| DSO | Departmental Solicitor’s Office |
| ELMS | Economic and Labour Market Statistics |
| ESRC | Economic and Social Research Council |
| EVAWG | Ending Violence Against Women and Girls |
| FOI | Freedom of Information |
| GRO | General Register Office |
| ICO | Information Commissioner’s Office |
| IDBR | Interdepartmental Business Register |
| LEO | Longitudinal Education Outcomes |
| NED | Non Executive Director |
| NI | Northern Ireland |
| NICS | Northern Ireland Civil Service |
| NILS | Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study |
| NIMDM | Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measures |
| NISRA | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency |
| ONS | Office for National Statistics |
| PfG | Programme for Government |
| RAP | Reproducible Analytical Pipeline |
| SAC | Statistical Advisory Committee |
| SAR | Subject Access Request |
| SBR | Statistical Business Register |
| SEN | Special Educational Needs |
| SSB | Statistical Support Branch |
| TEO | The Executive Office |
| VARS | Vital Statistics and Administrative Research and Support Branch |
| UKRI | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |