Effective Engagement between Business and the Northern Ireland Assembly: Research Project

In 2017 the NIABT decided that its objectives could be better achieved by the Northern Ireland Assembly facilitating business engagement activities in house rather than via a Trust.  Accordingly, the Trust agreed to dissolve and work to effect that dissolution is under way.

To support the transition from the NIABT to the new arrangements, the Trust agreed to fund a research project with the broad aim of informing the development of new arrangements to maximise effective engagement between business and the Assembly. The research will:

  • Gauge the business community in Northern Irelands level of understanding of the Assembly’s roles and responsibilities.
  • Take the views of the business community in Northern Ireland, Assembly Members and secretariat staff on current and past engagement practice between the Assembly and business and how such engagement could be improved.
  • Make comparisons with the engagement practices of other legislatures.

Pinnacle Growth Group have been appointed to undertaking the research and following consultation with Assembly Members, business members and Assembly staff, Pinnacle have developed an online survey to assess the current levels of engagement between the Northern Ireland Assembly and local businesses, and also the effectiveness of this engagement. Please find some further details and a link to the survey below.

Northern Ireland Assembly Business Trust – Stakeholder Survey

In partnership with the Northern Ireland Assembly Business Trust, Pinnacle Growth Group are undertaking a research project focusing on the level of engagement between the Northern Ireland Assembly and local businesses.

A key part of this project is engaging directly with businesses that span different sectors, scales and locations across Northern Ireland, so that we may gather information that will enable us to evaluate current engagement levels between local businesses and the Northern Ireland Assembly and identify potentially new and different approaches to increasing engagement levels. 

As part of this project, we would ask you to consider completing a 10 minute online survey by using this link.

Participation in this survey will be anonymous and no personal details will be gathered.

The closure date for the survey is 17:00 on Monday 22 March 2021

Please note that this survey is seeking to assess the engagement role of the Northern Ireland Assembly only – not the Northern Ireland Executive, individual MLAs or any Civil Service Departments. We would ask that the survey be completed with this in mind.

On behalf of Pinnacle Growth Group and the Northern Ireland Assembly & Business Trust, we thank you for your time and contributions towards this valuable piece of research.