Dear Martin

CABINET OFFICE CIVIL SERVICE STATISTICS

As you are aware, we recently completed our short review of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics for Civil Service Statistics, this letter details our findings.

We reviewed the statistics against the three pillars – trustworthiness, quality and value. Our review identified strengths, and recent improvements to the statistics, and I am pleased to confirm that these statistics should continue to be designated as National Statistics.

We recently had a very constructive conversation with the responsible statisticians about our review findings. We found many positive aspects in the way that the team produces, presents and develops these statistics. We welcome the creativity and motivation to improve the presentation of the statistical report over the last 12 months, in particular the use of graphics to help explain the data.

Other positive aspects include:

• Use of the Authority’s Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) toolkit, which represents fundamental good practice and demonstrates to users the quality of the data and statistics;
• Commitment to keep the development plan up to date as motivation to improve the statistics;
• Providing statistical notes throughout the bulletin that explain the limitations of the data, helping users understand, and use, the statistics appropriately.

Our review also identified some areas for improvement that we consider should be addressed to help enhance user understanding and inform public debate in this area.

• Publishing information gathered from engagement activities with users to enhance transparency and encourage further engagement with other users;
• To aid interpretation of the statistics, ensure graphs are presented clearly, for example consider the best way to present stacked bar charts, and including source information on the graphs:
• Ensuring the archived time series data tables can be accessed through the release, which will enable users to exploit the data more easily.

We would like to thank your team for their positive participation during this review and the commitment shown to the continued development of these statistics. Our domain lead for labour market statistics will keep in touch with you as you reflect on these findings. Please let me know if there is any aspect of this letter that you wish to discuss.

 

Yours sincerely

Mark Pont

Assessment Programme Lead