To ask the Minister of Finance, considering the availability of images on the NISRA website of 1985 Wards, whether NISRA or any other public body under his remit, excluding Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, produced these images or any Shapefiles, images or any other form of digitised boundary data, for any purpose, for (i) the 1985 Wards; and (ii) for any other administrative boundaries in use between 1973 and 1997.

The information requested is provided below.

(i) the 1985 Wards

NISRA holds a shapefile for the 1985 Wards;

(ii) for any other administrative boundaries in use between 1973 and 1997

NISRA produces statistics on a wide variety of topics, often reporting them for a range of administrative boundaries (e.g. Local Government Districts, Health and Social Care Trusts). To complement the release of some statistics NISRA also produces supporting material such as statistical bulletins, images, infographics and presentations – which can include maps of administrative boundaries to add context. In some cases, NISRA’s statistics are released in digital format within interactive applications that enable spatial analysis/ representation which also incorporate these administrative boundaries. In order to facilitate this, NISRA primarily sources shapefiles for these administrative boundaries from Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI) through the Northern Ireland Mapping Agreement.

OSNI is the only authoritative public body within my Department with remit over administrative boundaries, and NISRA is the only other public body within my Department with business remit or reason to extract and/or derive boundary data/information, in any spatial format, from OSNI mapping.