Methodology: Where Our Data Comes From
Every structured fact on MLAs.News — who sits where, who chairs what, what stage a bill has reached — is drawn from the Northern Ireland Assembly’s own published data. This page explains the sources, the update cycle, and the limits of what we hold.
Sources
- MLAs, parties and constituencies — the Assembly’s official open-data services (data.niassembly.gov.uk): current membership, party affiliation, constituency, and contact details. Portrait photographs are those published by the Assembly.
- Committee memberships and roles — the Assembly’s member-roles data: chairs, deputy chairs and members for every statutory, standing and ad hoc committee.
- Ministers and departments — the Assembly’s roles data, keyed to each department, plus departments’ own official websites for remit descriptions.
- Bills and stages — the Assembly’s official legislation pages for the 2022–2027 mandate. Each bill on our tracker links to its official page, which remains the authoritative record.
How records are kept in sync
Every record on this site carries the Assembly’s own stable identifier for that person, body or bill, so updates are a comparison against the official data — never a guess. A scheduled weekly sync checks for changes: co-options, party changes, committee reshuffles, new bills and stage movements. Changes are reviewed by the publisher before they go live.
When an MLA leaves the Assembly, their profile is retained and marked accordingly rather than deleted — the site aims to be a record, not just a snapshot.
Presentation choices
- Party colours follow each party’s own established branding and are applied with identical visual weight for every party — as accents, never as emphasis for one party over another.
- Bill stages are shown on a seven-stage model (First Stage to Royal Assent) matching Assembly procedure — see how a bill becomes law.
- Role tags (Minister, Committee Chair, Speaker and so on) are derived from the Assembly’s roles data by fixed rules, applied identically to every MLA.
Known limits
- Data is as current as the most recent sync; the Assembly’s own site is always the authoritative, real-time record.
- Where the Assembly’s data services omit information (occasionally, for example, a member’s contact details), we source it manually from the member’s official Assembly profile and note nothing beyond it.
- Division-by-division voting records are not yet included; they are planned.
If you find a discrepancy between this site and the official record, please report it — see our corrections policy.