NI election 2022 policy guide methodology

  • Published

The Northern Ireland guide to party policies has been put together by political editors and the BBC's visual journalism team.

It will be updated as parties publish their election manifestos. You can read it here.

The aim is to summarise where the parties stand on the issues that are most important to voters - helping them to make an informed decision at the ballot box.

How were the policy guide issue areas chosen?

The policy areas featured in the guide were selected by BBC journalists and ordered using polling data on the most important issues for voters in this election.

Some issues have been grouped together under short titles for simplicity.

How have parties been chosen and ordered?

The parties included are all standing at least 12 candidates across six different constituencies in the election.

Parties are listed in order of size in the assembly at dissolution.

Where a policy is not specified after a party's manifesto launch, the guide will indicate "policy not available".

How are the policies selected and summarised?

This is an editorial process overseen by BBC journalists.

All parties included in the guide have been contacted by the BBC in order to help identify their key policies ahead of the manifesto launches.