BACKGROUND QUALITY REPORT: NORTHERN IRELAND ABORTION STATISTICS
Introduction
The Code of Practice for Statistics states that statistical methods should be consistent with scientific principles and internationally recognised best practices and be fully documented. Quality should be monitored and assured taking account of internationally agreed practices.
The full text of the Code is available at:
(https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/)
Each Official and Accredited Official Statistics output produced by Hospital Activity Information Branch (HAIB) within the Department of Health (DoH) contains key quality information in respect of the specific content of the statistical output. This information is provided in the definitions, notes to tables or notes to editors.
Publication
Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics
Department responsible
Department of Health (DoH)
Release Date
Annually in January
Web Link to Publications
(https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/termination-pregnancy)
Background
Information on abortions in Northern Ireland is collected on an ongoing basis and published annually.
The information presented is derived from the notification forms submitted to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Northern Ireland following each abortion procedure as required under regulation 10 of The Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No 2) Regulations 2020. The information contained within the notification is set out in the Schedule to the 2020 Regulations.
HSC Trusts are provided with guidance outlining the completion and submission of these forms following each abortion carried out in Northern Ireland.
Dimensions of Quality
Dimension
Assessment
Relevance
The degree to which the statistical product meets user needs in both coverage and content.
The information presented in ‘Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics’ derives from notification forms provided by each HSC Trust on an ongoing basis. A notification form is required to be submitted to CMO following each abortion carried out in Northern Ireland.
These are used to provide the number of abortions carried out during the financial year aggregated by HSC Trust, age, weeks gestation and grounds for abortion.
Data contained in this release are published primarily to provide an indication of HSC Trust performance. They allow the general public and the DoH Health Committee to assess the performance of the DoH and HSC Trusts. These data also provide policy makers with the necessary information to formulate and evaluate health services and are helpful in assessing the effectiveness of resource allocation in providing services that are fully responsive to patient needs.
In addition, information from this publication is used to respond to assembly questions and ad-hoc queries from the public. HAIB ensures that this statistical report remains relevant to users in a number of ways, including; openly welcoming feedback from known users upon issuing each year’s publication, providing contact details publicly so that other users can easily get in touch. In this way the needs of users are continuously monitored, and if appropriate and practical, acted upon.
Accuracy and Reliability
The proximity between an estimate and the unknown true value.
Data providers are supplied with guidance outlining how the notification forms should be completed.
This guidance indicates that notifications should be sent to CMO within 14 days of the abortion taking place.
All information presented in this publication has been validated and quality assured by HSC Trusts prior to publication.
Previous data are revised if necessary and appropriate. All revisions are conducted in line with HAIB’s Revisions Policy which can be found in the Statistics Charter online at:
(https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/doh-statistics-charter)
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.
The CMO notifications used to produce this publication are submitted within 14 days of the abortion. However, this data needs to be entered onto a spreadsheet and checked prior to aggregation of the data for publication
‘Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics’ is always published on the last Thursday in January for the previous financial year.
The ‘Schedule of Publications’, which provides twelve months advance notice of releases, is available at: (https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/statistical-releases-calendar)
In the majority of cases, the target publication deadlines are met. However, in the event of a change to a pre-announced release date, the delay is announced, explained and updated regularly.
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 annual ‘Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics’ Official Statistics publication includes data visualisations, tabular data and commentary.
The report includes notes for readers which cover: the timeline of the commissioning of abortion services in Northern Ireland, important links to key legislation and information on methods of abortion and the statutory grounds for abortion.
The ‘Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics’ publication is currently produced in HTML format and available to view / download on the Department’s website (link below):
(https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/termination-pregnancy)
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.
There is currently no other official source of abortion statistics in Northern Ireland. However, HSC Trusts and associated agencies have their own internal quality assurance checks. Any data quality issues which arise are dealt with reactively and resolved as they arise. HSC Trusts have dedicated data quality resources to proactively manage data quality challenges across the organisations.
Trade-offs between Output Quality Components
Trade-offs are the extent to which different aspects of quality are balanced against each other.
None
Assessment of User Needs and Perceptions
The processes for finding out about users and uses, and their views on the statistical products.
Data presented in this publication helps to meet the information needs of a wide range of internal and external users.
Within DoH, the ‘Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics’ publication is used by policy officials to monitor and report the details of abortions – how many have taken place and the breakdown by HSC Trust, age, weeks gestation and grounds for abortion, for corporate monitoring, for Ministerial briefing and to respond to Private Office enquiries and parliamentary / assembly questions. It is also used by service users and other members of the general public to hold HSC Trusts and government to account.
User feedback is invited in this publication. Readers are provided with contact details for the relevant statistician. Further details are placed on the statistics website:
We gain awareness of users of our data from ad hoc requests for information and from the receipt of invitations to relevant meetings and conferences.
Users’ needs are prioritised, taking account of the resources available.
Performance, Cost and Respondent Burden
The information collected by HSC Trusts for this publication is not collected specifically for HAIB and would be produced whether requested by HAIB or not.
On receipt of the notification forms, several months of working time from statistical staff is required to input, validate and analyse data, plus a small amount of senior staff oversight.
Confidentiality, Transparency and Security
The procedures and policy used to ensure sound confidentiality, security and transparent practices.
Information used to produce this publication is submitted to CMO in secure emails or via post and these are saved in a secure folder in Content Manager and accessible only be HAIB staff working on the publication. The information is then entered into a spreadsheet with no patient identifiers recorded.
The spreadsheet is held on a network that is only accessible to the
statisticians who need access.
Data are published in such a way that individuals cannot be
identified.
DoH’s Data Protection policy statement can be found at:
(https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/dhssps-data-protection-policy-statement)