The Office for Statistics Regulation is currently assessing the extent to which the following publications, produced by Northern Ireland Health and Social Care (HSC) Business Services Organisation (BSO), meet the professional standards set out in the statutory Code of Practice for Statistics:
- General Pharmaceutical Services and Prescribing Statistics
- General Dental Services Statistics
- General Ophthalmic Services Statistics
- General Medical Services Statistics
- Compendium
- Prescription Cost Analysis
The Code of Practice is a regulatory framework based on the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics. It places a strong emphasis on meeting the needs of users. Capturing the views of users, and potential users, forms an important part of our judgment about the statistics, including their strengths and how they could be improved going forward. If you are a user of these statistics, we would very much welcome your feedback on these statistics and would be grateful if any thoughts could be aligned to the following questions:
- Which of the statistics or datasets do you use, and for what purposes? Please be as specific as possible.
- Are the statistics or datasets published at a level of quality that meets your needs? For example, are the releases sufficiently timely and frequent? Is the data detailed enough for your uses?
- How clear is the advice from BSO about the strengths and limitations of the statistics?
- How clearly are the statistics presented, and does the statistical commentary provide helpful insights for you? How could it be improved?
- If you have requested additional data or raised queries with BSO about these statistics, or if the statisticians have sought your views about changes or improvements to the statistics, please tell us how well the statisticians engaged with you.
- It will be useful for us to share your comments with BSO to enable them to take account of your views. Please could you tell us whether or not you consent for us to pass your comments and contact details on?
We welcome comments on the above, or any other aspect of these statistics which you think might be relevant to our assessment. To contribute to our assessment, please get in touch with one of our assessment team: Anna Price, Jo Mulligan or Sarah Whitehead. We look forward to receiving your comments by 28 February 2022.