RSSeNEWS to be determined...

The UK Statistics Authority has asked the Government to make it clear whether statistics it uses to support policy are 'management information', or validated data published by official providers.

The request was made in a letter from Authority chair Sir Michael Scholar to Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude. It follows Maude's quoting of “rough and ready” public sector employment figures in June, despite the availability of validated statistics from the Office for National Statistics.

The minister had told Sir Michael previously that he used ministry headcount figures and didn't wait for the latest ONS data because it “would have prevented us from delivering the shock treatment that ministers judge was needed”.

It has emerged that Jil Matheson, the National Statistician, had sought unsuccessfully to delay publication so the ONS could quality-assure the figures.

Sir Michael's letter makes clear the UK Statistics Authority "wholly accepts, and shares" Maude's view that well-run organisations must control their management information, and that the Authority is "very careful" to ensure it doesn't stand in the way of improving such information.

“But when data collected initially as management information are aggregated into statistics that are used in public in support of government policy, we may need, under the Statistics Act, to comment publicly if these statistics are not compiled and issued in accordance with the statutory Code of Practice,” says Scholar.

In his letter, Sir Michael says that the Authority has invited the ONS to review the "desirability and affordability" of providing a wider range of public sector employment statistics.

Commenting on the correspondence, Straight Statistics' Nigel Hawkes remarks that "Maude’s letter effectively argues that ministers can decide what are statistics and what are not, and publish what it admits are inaccurate figures to make a political point. It is thus a direct challenge to the authority’s efforts to wrest the control of statistical information out of the hands of ministers, and restore public faith in official statistics."