Dear Mr McAlpine, 

Thank you for your letter of 18 July requesting temporary suspension of National Statistics status for the Education Maintenance Allowances (EMA) statistics because of quality concerns. I welcome your team’s openness and proactive engagement with us on this matter.  

Given the disruption that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused to the allocation of EMA payments, as well as the data collection and publication of these statistics, I support your decision to temporarily remove National Statistics designation from the three years worth of data that you are planning on publishing in August 2022.  

We will continue to engage with your statisticians, via our Children, Education and Skills team, and look forward to considering the restoration of National Statistics status once you are assured that the statistics can meet the standards expected by the Code of Practice for Statistics.  

Yours sincerely,

Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation