Outcome of Consultation on User engagement on ‘Lone Pensioner Allowance and Disabled Person’s Allowance’ annual publication on GOV.UK
In October 2024, Land & Property Services Statistics Branch ran a consultation to seek users’ views on the proposal to discontinue the annual publication of ‘Lone Pensioner Allowance (LPA) and Disabled Person’s Allowance (DPA) statistics’ on GOV.UK.
Background
A review of the publication had found it was of very low interest and there had been delays in providing data to internal colleagues, when requested, which was contrary to the original intent of the data. It was therefore proposed to discontinue publishing the annual LPA and DPA Official Statistics through GOV.UK and instead continue publishing the data, in the same format, as management information through Open Data NI.
A more detailed outline of the proposal and the rationale behind this is provided on the consultation page.
Consultation
The consultation sought feedback from respondents on whether they agreed with the proposal to discontinue publishing the LPA and DPA Official Statistics through GOV.UK and instead continue publishing the data as management information through Open Data NI. Respondents who disagreed with the proposal were given the opportunity to provide the reasons on why they disagreed. Respondents were also given the opportunity to provide any additional comments or feedback.
Details of the consultation were emailed to known users within LPS, with instruction to cascade further, with follow-up reminder emails sent during the consultation period. The consultation appeared on the DoF Consultation page and the cross-government NI Direct Consultation page.
The consultation period ran from 23 October 2024 to 17 December 2024.
Responses
Four responses were received by the close of the consultation. Of these, three respondents supported the proposal. One respondent disagreed with the proposal and commented that publishing the data through GOV.UK provided ‘transparency to members of the public, public bodies, advice bodies and elected officials’ while also reducing the ‘need for requests for this information through the likes of FOI’.
Actions
In considering all the responses received, along with low usage of the report, it was decided that LPS Statistics Branch will discontinue publication of the LPA and DPA Official Statistics through GOV.UK. The data will continue to be published, in the same format, as management information through Open Data NI. The proposed changes will be implemented before the next scheduled release of the publication. As the data will continue to be uploaded to Open Data NI, in the same format, transparency for the public, public bodies, advice bodies and elected officials will be maintained. The data will also be publicly available should anyone request information or wish to carry out any missing analyses.