To ask the Minister of Finance whether he will establish a formal data-sharing partnership involving government departments, the community and voluntary sector, academic institutions and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency to monitor hunger, food insecurity and food bank usage, and to assess progress towards ending the need for charitable food provision.

I recognise the importance of effective and responsible data sharing in improving public services, supporting evidence-based policy making and delivering better outcomes for citizens.

My Department is already taking forward a programme of work to strengthen data sharing and linkage across the public sector. The Administrative Data Research NI (ADR NI) partnership between NISRA, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and Ulster University, supports the acquisition, linking and analysis of administrative datasets held by public authorities, developing cutting-edge research to improve knowledge, policymaking and public service delivery.

In addition, the NI Longitudinal Study – a collaboration between NISRA, QUB and HSCNI – is a wide-ranging database of people and their major life events, covering a period of several decades. It is proportionally a larger longitudinal study than in England, Wales or Scotland, covering around 28% of the NI population and accounting for approximately 50% of households. The NILS comprises data from Census returns (1981 to 2021), vital events (births, deaths and marriages), as well as migration and property data. The result is over 40 years of longitudinal data which is regularly being updated. In addition to this resource there is the potential to link further Health and Social Care data via Distinct Linkage Projects. Both research initiatives support accredited research in the areas of deprivation, poverty and inequalities among a range of other topics.

The ADR NI and NILS continue to engage closely with NI departments, including the Department for Communities, to assess ongoing and emerging data sharing priorities and to develop insightful data for research where appropriate and lawful to do so.