More statistical fury (2)
Sources inside the Home Office have revealed still more anger about December's misleading knife crime stats.
I am informed that the department's statisticians had "no idea" that Downing Street and their own media department were putting out a release which included unchecked, inappropriate and selective numbers.
It seems that no-one in the press office or Number Ten thought it might be a good idea to have a quick chat with the Home Office's own stats people.
Ministers, of course, did know about the press release - they had to be briefed ahead of TV and radio interviews. But, I am told, they were kept in the dark about concerns among data crunchers in the NHS. The health statisticians had said the hospital admissions figures were not ready for publication and wanted the release stopped.
Conspiracy or cock-up?
My instinct is to think it is the latter, but what is really odd about this incident is that Professor Paul Wiles, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Home Office, had warned staff only a few months before that the new UK Statistics Authority - a watchdog pledged to rebuild confidence in government data - would be looking to make an example of somebody.
"I don't want that to be us," Professor Wiles told them. His job, of course, is to ensure that the rules on statistics are not breached.
So when the row blew up in his face, he was incandescent, telling anyone who would listen that if he had seen the press notice it would never have been released.
A note has been sent to every employee within the Home Office making it clear that such a breach will "not happen again".
Despite what the Home Secretary has said, this isn't a story about over-excitable press officers failing to follow some internal code to the letter. The rules on statistical releases are laid down by statute - laws which had only just come into force and should have been fresh in their minds.
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"The rules on statistical releases are laid down by statute - laws which had only just come into force and should have been fresh in their minds."
Does this statute create a criminal offence if breached? If so, then shouldn't the Met Police and CPS be making arrests etc?
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Mark
As you comment...The rules on statistical releases are laid down by statute - laws which had only just come into force and should have been fresh in their minds.
Conspiracy or cock-up?
The World as we have known it under both BLiar and The Great Godro it is coming to an end....
History, if not the Courts, will judge them...
For now, Conspiracy
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So who is being prosecuted?
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#3 - TheEnglishman
Prosecuted? Good Grief Man, next you will want them to be accountable.
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What on earth are we on about - the statistics office having to be fair and accountable to a watchdog UK Statistics Authority - pledged to rebuild confidence in government data- looking to make an example of some one.
So no bias there then.
Should they not be trying to rebuild accuracy and provide the customer [the British electorate] with correct data not make Gordy and the crew look good?
Why cant government and all civil servants remember to whom they are supposed to be civil and whom they serve
How is anyone going to moderate a department whose very performance will always come up with the result that - a man with his head in the fridge and his feet in the oven is on average comfortable - other than by bias?
The entire shower in Westminster should be washed down the gutter it has created for us all [the public] to live in and the electorate be allowed to choose some representatives who can get us on the move again with accurate accounting
There is little I would look to America to provide example or inspiration in but there is on thing why don’t we insist the we stop calling politicians – politicians – and call them representatives that might remind them every day when they get out of bed what they are suppose to be doing - that is looking after the best interest of the people they represent - instead of feathering their own nest and trying to protect their own butt while attempting to lick that of their colleagues higher up the ladder.
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I know there will be many who will not agree with me, but I cannot believe that a minister would agree to the release of unchecked statistics if they had been told unambiguously that it would be against the law. They are stupid, very stupid but not that stupid.
So it begs the question what are civil servants for? You cannot expect a minister to recall every aspect of the law (though I would have expected them to remember this one) and it is up to the civil servants to remind them. How effiicent/loyal are they/ If I were a minister I would want every copy of provisional stats stamped in large red letters "It is illegal to make these statistics public" Though of course they can always be leaked to the opposition to publish!!!!
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