6 Statistics and their use in government
38. We recently completed a comprehensive programme
of work to scrutinise statistics and their use in government,
which was launched in June 2012. We assumed responsibility for
scrutiny of government statistics after responsibility for statistics
was transferred from HM Treasury to the Cabinet Office in 2008.
In this programme, we have inquired into 10 topics—some
through traditional inquiries and others through written evidence
and correspondence with relevant parties. Reports published as
part of this series include those on statistics and open data,
crime statistics and the census.[50]
39. This work has enabled us to maintain pressure
on both the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) and the Government
to improve the quality of a broad range of statistics and to hold
them to account on issues of significant national importance.
We are particularly pleased about the impact of our inquiry into
Crime Statistics, which led to the removal of the gold-standard
kitemark of "national statistics" from police-recorded
crime, and a significant programme of work in government and by
the Office for National Statistics and UKSA to improve the quality
of these important statistics.[51]
40. We have held debates in Westminster Hall on our
inquiries into Crime Statistics and Migration Statistics, holding
Ministers to account and enabling Members from across the House
to debate the issues raised in our reports.
41. One of the key recommendations to come out of
this programme of work on statistics was the recommendation that
there should be a clear separation between the officials who regulate
the quality of national statistics and those who produce the data.[52]
Progress on this has been disappointingly slow. The lack of separation
means that UKSA tends to challenge only the misuse of statistics
rather than the more difficult part of regulation, namely challenging
Government departments that are not managing their statistical
work sufficiently in the public interest. This should be a key
focus for the future.
42. Several of the Committee's reports dealt with
individual statistical themes, such as migration, crime and the
economy, and the scale of the work required to boost the quality
of output in these areas was clear. For example, as a result of
our final inquiry in the series, on statistics for the economy
and public finances, we recently outlined to the UKSA the need
to improve the quality of all the key economic statistics, including
GDP, inflation and earnings, and their coherence.[53]
We do not underestimate the scale of the task ahead and it will
need robust leadership from UKSA to deliver the necessary gains.
Good and equal access to data is fundamental. To this end we highlighted
the need to make further improvements to the heavily-criticised
Office for National Statistics (ONS) website, so that users can
find data more easily, and consider a revamp of the publications.[54]
It is also most important that ministerial pre-release access
to data is stopped.
43. In a similar vein, we hope that UKSA will take
action to increase transparency and openness both in terms of
its basic organisational information—for example, by improving
annual reports—and its statistical work, as it is currently
difficult to establish what changes are occurring to statistics
and what innovations are being prioritised and delivered. As more
and more administrative data are being collected, and are likely
to form the core of the next population census, it is especially
vital to keep users up to date. We hope that ONS and UKSA will
take our suggestions on board, and we highlight the need for continued
monitoring in future.
44. Good quality statistics are essential to the
scrutiny of the Government's work and performance, and so it is
essential that our successor Committee continues to focus on this
very important area.
50 Public Administration Select Committee, Tenth Report
of Session 2013-14, Statistics and Open Data: Harvesting unused knowledge, empowering citizens and improving public services,
HC 564, March 2014; Public Administration Select Committee, Thirteenth
Report of Session 2013-14, Caught red-handed: Why we can't count on Police Recorded Crime statistics,
HC 760, April 2014; Public Administration Select Committee, Fifteenth
Report of Session 2013-14, Too soon to scrap the Census, HC 1090,
April 2014 Back
51
Public Administration Select Committee, Thirteenth Report of Session
2013-14, Caught red-handed: Why we can't count on Police Recorded Crime statistics,
HC 760, April 2014 Back
52
Public Administration Select Committee, Ninth Report of Session
2012-13, Public trust in Government: statistics A review of the operation of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007,
HC 406, February 2013 Back
53
Letter from the Public Administration Select Committee to the
National Statistician, 18 March 2015 Back
54
Public Administration Select Committee, First Report of Session
2013-14, Communicating statistics: Not just true but also fair,
HC 190 [incorporating HC 662-i, Session 2012-13] May 2013 Back
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