Meeting 15: 12th December 2022

Sexual Violence Survey Steering Group Meeting

Videoconference between Central Statistics Office and Department of Justice.

12th Dec 2022 2:00pm

Agenda

1. Introduction – DJ chair

2. Agreement of minutes from last meeting – update on actions

3. Update from CSO on development work to date

4. Finance

1. 2022 update on spend

5. Pre-release access policy

6. Next meeting – March 2023

7. AOB

Minutes

Attendees:

• Gurchand Singh, Chief Data Officer, Department of Justice (Chair)
• Philip McCormack, Research Officer, Department of Justice
• Keith McSweeney, Senior Statistician, Central Statistics Office
• Helen McGrath, Statistician, Central Statistics Office

1. Introduction

The Chair welcomed all members of the steering group. Apologies were noted from Alice Wainwright.

2. Agreement of minutes from last meeting

The minutes from the last meeting were agreed and updates were given on each action.

3. Update from CSO on development work to date

Since the previous steering group meeting, the office has:

• Data collection for the SVS remains open. See point A for further details.
• The eighth Liaison Group was held in October. See point B for further details.
• The publication plan for the survey will likely be a main report with themed releases afterwards. A meeting with stakeholders, media, academics on the methodology underpinning the report will be planned for in the days before the main report launch.
• Processing in terms of developing a weighting and calibration plan has begun.

A. Survey data collection

Just over 4,480 returns have been received. This level of return will enable a series of publications on Sexual Violence prevalence levels to be disseminated. The vast majority of returns (78%) are CAWI with 18% representing CAPI/CASI and 4% representing PAPI. An overall interim response rate of 35% has been calculated, a level which compares very favourably to the experience of other countries who have conducted similar type surveys.

The sample for the survey has been released in stages. The first stage represented 6,000 cases which were contacted from May to September. The second stage represented 5,400 cases which were contacted from August onwards. A third stage of about 1,200 cases was released in October. The majority of the field collection team have been stood down in November. The online portal for the survey instrument will remain open until the 20th December. A notice explaining the closing date for the instrument will be placed online to inform potential respondents.

No ethical issues have arisen from the data collection process. Most feedback from respondents was primarily around technical issues (how to access the survey launch page, how to use the access codes, etc.) and there were no issues which required escalation.

B. Liaison Group meeting

The eighth Liaison Group meeting was held on the 21st October 2022. The meeting focused on sharing information on the delivery of the SVS main survey plan – particularly focusing on an update on the data collection. It included some statistics from the respondent module which spoke to the quality of the instrument. It also included some proposed observations on the communications plan. It was a positive meeting, with members satisfied that the project was going well. Several comments were received on the dissemination plan regarding timing and approach.
The agenda from the Liaison Group meeting is currently published on the website and the minutes from Group will be published once they are formally agreed by the group.

A discussion on the publication format was held. The CSO will provide some additional detail on the format of the report for the Department of Justice to share amongst its policy sections.

4. Finance

An overview report on the first ten months of 2022 spend was discussed. It was noted that since the last steering group meeting, a transfer of €300k was made from CSO to the Department of Justice. The remaining balance will be retained for the costs for 2023 hence there will be no request for 2023 funding. Any remaining funds at the end of the project will be returned to the Department of Justice.

5. Pre-release access policy

An outline of the pre-release policy for the office was described. The policy acknowledges, in accordance with the EU Code of Practice on Statistics , that the CSO’s standard practice is that statistics are released to all users at the same time. However, it is acknowledged that in very limited circumstances a business need for limited pre-release access may be agreed to by the Director General of CSO. CSO will explore the options here, including the availability of an official’s briefing (like is done for the quarterly Labour Force Survey for example), and will update the Department.

6. Next meeting

January 2023 was agreed as the month for the next official Steering Group meeting. A date will be agreed closer to the time.

7. AOB

There was no AOB.