Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to detail (i) the number of Rural Needs Impact Assessments (RNIAs) under the Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, carried out by his Department and its arm’s-length bodies, of policies, strategies, and services affecting rural communities; and (ii) a breakdown of (a) the number of; and (b) which, strategies and services that were enhanced as a consequence of the RNIA, in each of the last five years.
Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: (i) Over the past five years, my Department and its bodies have completed a total of 158 Rural Needs Impact Assessments (RNIAs). The following table presents an annual breakdown of the total number of RNIAs completed by DAERA.
| Year(1 Apr – 31 Mar) | Number of Rural Needs Impact Assessments completed by DAERA |
| 2019/2020 | 42 |
| 2020/2021 | 43 |
| 2021/2022 | 24 |
| 2022/2023 | 25 |
| 2023/2024 | 24 |
(ii) Section 1(1) of the Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (the Act) places a statutory duty on public authorities listed in the Schedule to the Act to have due regard to rural needs when developing, adopting, implementing and revising policies, strategies and plans and when designing and delivering public services. Section 3(2) of the Act requires my Department to collate and publish an annual report containing the information sent to it by public authorities on the exercise of its functions under section 1 of the Act and lay this report before the Assembly.
The statutory duties under the Act do not confer the power to my Department to evaluate the information provided in the RNIAs and therefore my Department does not hold information on the number of, and which policies, strategies and services were enhanced as a consequence of the RNIA, in each of the last five years.
ENDS
Your MLA 