Attitudes to the Free Period Products Scheme in Northern Ireland 2025 - Background Quality Report

October 2026

Introduction

Context for the quality report.

The ‘Attitudes to the Free Period Products Scheme in Northern Ireland’ Official Statistics report is published by The Executive Office’s (TEO’s) Statistics and Analysis Unit. This Background Quality Report provides a summary of how the Official Statistics report adheres to various dimensions of quality.

The report, with data for 2025, was first published in October 2026. The data are taken from the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey, an annual survey run by Access Research Knowledge (ARK). ARK is a social policy hub, established in 2000 by researchers at Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast.

The intention is to continue to publish the ‘Attitudes to the Free Period Products Scheme in Northern Ireland’ report annually going forward.

Relevance

The degree to which the statistical product meets user needs in both coverage and content.

The 2025 report, published in October 2026, was the first edition. In the 2025 NILT survey, respondents were advised that under the Free Period Products scheme, from 13 May 2024, period products are available, free of charge, from public libraries (including mobile libraries). After being provided with this statement, respondents were asked:

  • Were you aware of the Free Period Products scheme before today?

Respondents were then asked how much they agree or disagree with the following statements:

  • Period products should be available, free of charge, to everyone who needs them.

  • Public libraries are a suitable location for distributing free period products.

This publication presents 2025 results to each question for the overall sample, with further analysis by sex and age. Additional analysis by religion, marital status, disability, sexual orientation and urban/rural area are available in the accompanying data tables.

It is anticipated that the report will be useful to: TEO and other government departments; local councils; community and voluntary sector organisations; educational professionals; academics; media; and the general public.

A user survey, seeking feedback on the coverage and content of the report, was published alongside the 2025 edition. It is expected that the results of this survey, as well as more targeted user engagement, will help to inform the content and design of future releases.

Accuracy and Reliability

The proximity between an estimate and the unknown true value.

Sample

The annual NILT survey is administered to a representative sample of the adult (aged 18+) population in Northern Ireland. The 2025 survey sample was a systematic random sample of addresses selected from the Postcode Address File (PAF). The PAF is the most up-to-date and complete list of addresses in the UK, maintained by the Royal Mail. Non-residential addresses and businesses were removed from the list, where possible. The sample was stratified proportionately by LGD area.

In 2025, 8,000 addresses were drawn from the PAF and invited to complete the survey. An invitation letter, containing a unique URL survey link, was issued to each household. To ensure that the survey was as inclusive as possible, participants could also ask to complete the survey by telephone. The invitation letter indicated that only the adult with the next birthday within the household was eligible for participation. Of the 8,000 potential participants, 1,244 completed the survey: a response rate of 16%. The free period product questions were answered by between 1,238 and 1,239 respondents.

Sampling error and weights

As NILT is a sample survey, there is a certain level of sampling error. This means that the characteristics of the group sampled will differ from the population as a whole. To account for this, and to ensure that reported estimates better represent the population, the data have been weighted by age, gender, and location, based on information from the Northern Ireland Census.

Confidence intervals and statistical significance

The supplementary data tables include detail on the 95% confidence intervals for each estimate. Statistically significant differences have been highlighted in the report, with full detail, including statistically significant differences between sub-population groups, presented in worksheets 4a to 4c in the supplementary data tables. Further information on how to interpret the confidence intervals and significant differences is included in the ‘Technical notes’ section of the main report and the ‘Metadata’ worksheet in the supplementary data tables.

Timeliness and Punctuality

Timeliness refers to the time gap between publication and the reference period. Punctuality refers to the gap between planned and actual publication dates.

Data for the 2025 NILT survey was collected between 26 September 2025 and 14 December 2025. The ‘Attitudes to the Free Period Products Scheme in Northern Ireland 2025’ report was published in October 2026, which is 10 months after the end of the reference period.

The report was published on the planned date, as pre-announced on TEO’s website and Gov.uk.

Accessibility and Clarity

Accessibility is the ease with which users are able to access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available and the availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality and sufficiency of the metadata, illustrations and accompanying advice.

The 2025 report was published in an HTML format on TEO’s website on the pre-announced publication date. The report is also available in alternative formats upon request. Contact details are provided within the published report. A link to the report was emailed to a list of key users.

Within the report, charts include titles, axis names and data labels, where relevant.

Additionally, the main report includes a ‘Technical notes’ annex which provides summary background information, definitions, and methodological explanations.

Supplementary data tables accompanying this publication are available in Microsoft Excel and OpenDocument Spreadsheet formats on TEO’s website. The tables also contain breakdowns by sub-population groups, not contained within the report. They also include a ‘Metadata’ worksheet providing definitions and methodological explanations.

Coherence and Comparability

Coherence is the degree to which data that are derived from different sources or methods, but refer to the same topic, are similar. Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain.

The statistics contained within this report are derived solely from the NILT survey. This is the only publicly available source of data, representative of the adult population in Northern Ireland, on public attitudes to the Free Period Products Scheme. As such, there are no direct comparisons with other data sources.

In Scotland, the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 places a legal duty on local authorities and education providers to ensure that period products are available free of charge, as and when they are required.

The Scottish Government commissioned a July 2022 baseline survey to assess public awareness, attitudes, knowledge and experiences of accessing free period products. There is a degree of commonality between the questions asked in the Scottish survey and those included in the NILT, particularly on awareness of the scheme.

No other directly comparable data for Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland are currently published.

Trade-offs between Output Quality Components

Trade-offs are the extent to which different aspects of quality are balanced against each other.

It is the nature of sampling variability that the smaller the group whose size is being estimated, the less precise (proportionately) that estimate is. Estimates for groups where the sample base is less than 50 have been omitted from the report, as they are likely to be unreliable. This is denoted by ‘[u]’ in the supplementary data tables.

To provide a more robust and in-depth analysis, response options ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘Agree’ were combined as ‘Agree’ for two of the questions. Response options ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’ were combined as ‘Disagree’. Additionally, where appropriate, demographic categories were combined to achieve a group sample suitable for publication.

Assessment of User Needs and Perceptions

The processes for finding out about users and uses, and their views on the statistical products.

A user survey, seeking feedback on the coverage and content of the report, was published alongside the 2025 edition. It is expected that the results of this survey, as well as more targeted user engagement, will help to inform future releases.

Performance, Cost and Respondent Burden

The effectiveness, efficiency and economy of the statistical output.

The costs involved in administering the NILT survey are shared across all those purchasing modules of questions in the survey. TEO Statistics and Analysis Unit procures at least two modules each year, one of which includes questions on the Free period Products Scheme.

Respondent burden is shared across all public sector organisations purchasing modules within the survey. The total time to complete these modules is subsequently apportioned across all public sector organisations required to report respondent burden.

Confidentiality, Transparency and Security

The procedures and policy used to ensure sound confidentiality, security and transparent practices.

The NILT data provided by ARK are anonymised (name/address and any other identifiable information is removed from the database). In addition, the data represent a sample of the population and there is no way for Statistics and Analysis Unit to identify the sample chosen from the population. The data are held within TEO’s secure record management system and secure shared drive, with restricted access and subject to approved record retention protocols.

Responses are presented as weighted percentages and analysis is only carried out if the sample size in the population sub-category is large enough.

Statistical disclosure control has been applied to instances of small cell counts (less than five). Data are not presented for confidentiality purposes. This is denoted by ‘[c]’ in the supplementary data tables.

Statistical outputs are only seen by authorised staff prior to their publication.