The Northern Ireland Assembly Commissioner for Standards recorded 161 complaints in 2025-26, an increase from 149 in the previous year and the second consecutive annual rise.

Of the total, 66 complaints were against members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) and 95 related to ministers. The commissioner assessed 84 complaints as admissible and moved them to formal investigation, while 73 were deemed inadmissible. The remainder were discontinued or remained under consideration.

A single controversy involving a social media post by a Stormont minister generated 65 complaints. The post, made in June last year by Democratic Unionist Party minister Gordon Lyons, referred to Larne Leisure Centre during a period when immigrant families were forced to flee their homes amid racially-motivated riots in County Antrim.

The previous standards commissioner, Melissa McCullough, found that the post may have heightened tensions and contributed to further unrest. Lyons dismissed the report, saying there was no evidence to support the findings that he breached the ministerial code, and called the report contradictory. He also described an assembly motion of no confidence in him as immaterial.

More than half of complaints against MLAs involved allegations of excessive and unreasonable personal attack, including concerns over the use of social media.

The annual report is the first from Stephen Wright, who succeeded McCullough after her five-year term ended. He said the complaint numbers were aligning to levels seen in other years. Complaint figures had dipped to 65 during 2023-24 when the Stormont institutions were collapsed over post-Brexit trade checks.