UNITED KINGDOM
STATISTICS AUTHORITY News Release issued by COI News Distribution
Service. 6 January 2009
The UK Statistics
Authority today publishes the new Code of Practice for Official
Statistics. The Authority has statutory responsibility under the
Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 to prepare and
publish this Code after due consultation.
The Code, along with a statement of the procedures that will be
followed in assessing statistics against it, was the subject of a
12-week public consultation between July and September 2008. Only
those sets of statistics that the Authority judges to be produced
in compliance with the Code will be allowed, in future, to carry
the National Statistics designation.
Alongside the Code of Practice and the formal report on the
consultation exercise, the Authority is publishing a further
report which lists some 340 sets of official statistics not
currently designated as National Statistics. The report identifies
some of these statistics that the Authority believes should be
brought within the scope of the Code, and assessed against it with
a view to designation as National Statistics. The Authority has a
statutory duty to notify government ministers of such cases and
will be following them up with the relevant government departments.
The Authority made critical comment before Christmas on a Home
Office statement, issued on 11 December, on knife crime
statistics. The Authority's analysis of this case appears in
a paper prepared at the time for the Authority Board, and is
published today on the Authority's website. It draws out the
respects in which the statement was inconsistent with the Code of Practice.
Speaking today, Sir Michael Scholar said:
"The publication of our new Code of Practice for Official
Statistics marks the beginning of a new chapter for the Statistics
Authority. We now have the guiding principles in place against
which we will assess official statistics to determine whether they
meet the standards necessary to be labelled as National Statistics.
"Compliance with the Code allows official figures to carry
the National Statistics label, and the assessment process helps to
ensure consistently high standards of service, as well as
identifying areas that need attention. The Authority wishes to see
the National Statistics label recognised as an assurance that the
statistics have been produced and explained to high standards, and
that they serve the public good. By looking at whether the
statistical system is meeting the needs of users of statistics and
wider society, it will help, over time, to build trust in official statistics.
"I believe the new Code of Practice will help the many
producers of UK official statistics to collect, explain, and
release those statistics in ways that build public trust and
confidence in the statistical system as a whole."
The new Code of Practice is available on the Authority's
website at:
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html
The reports on the consultation exercise and on the priorities
for designation as National Statistics are at:
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports---correspondence/reports/index.html
A separate document containing the individual responses to the
consultation is published at:
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports---correspondence/consultations/closed-consultations/index.html
The Monitoring and Assessment Note Statement on knife crime
statistics, 11 December 2008 - analysis against the Code of
Practice for Official Statistics is at:
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/monitoring-and-assessment-notes/published-notes.html
The Authority's Head of Assessment, Richard Alldritt, is
responsible for assessing whether official statistics are
compiled, released, and presented in a way that is consistent with
the Authority's Code of Practice for Official Statistics, and
whether to designate official statistics that have been assessed
against the Code as National Statistics.
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