Guide to Submitting Written Evidence

1. All organisations and individuals are welcome to submit evidence.

2. Written evidence should give a brief introduction to the persons or organisations submitting it (perhaps, if appropriate, stating their area of expertise, etc). It is also helpful to include recommendations for action by the Department of Education and/or others that you or your organisation would like the Committee to consider for inclusion in its Report.

3. If possible, written evidence should be preferably e-mailed to the Committee as “Word Documents”. Written evidence should be in the form of a brief, self-contained memorandum with numbered paragraphs but without page numbers, and should be prefaced with 1-2 page summary plus, if appropriate, a table of contents. Colour printing should be avoided please.

4. Witnesses should be aware that if they decide to publish the evidence that they provide to the Committee, the publication would not be covered by Assembly privilege in relation to the law of defamation. Witnesses who nevertheless decide to publish their evidence should provide the Committee with advance notice of their intentions.

5. The Committee must give permission for written evidence submitted by witnesses to be made available to the press/public at evidence sessions. Unless indicated otherwise it will be assumed that those submitting written evidence have no objections to it being made public by the Committee. If witnesses give oral evidence, copies of their written evidence will usually be made available to the press and public at the hearing and treated as being in the public domain thereafter. Written evidence submitted by those not giving oral evidence will be made public by the Committee by publication of its Inquiry Report on the Committee website.

6. All communications should be sent to

John Simmons, Committee Clerk
Committee for Education
Room 242, Ballymiscaw, Parliament Buildings 
Belfast, BT4 3XX.

E-mail committee.education@niassembly.gov.uk
Fax 028 9052 1371