Dear Alastair,   

Statistical Strategic Priorities in Scotland 

Thank you for your letter setting out your approach to setting statistical priorities for the Scottish Government. 

We support your approach and there are several features that we regard as best practice, including the identification and communication of priorities for each analytical area; the involvement of users; and the openness about the potential for suspensions or changes to some of your current outputs. We support your review of outputs and we certainly would not want to require you to keep all of your current range of statistical outputs if they were no longer aligning with user need. User need should be the central spine of all of your judgements, and that is why your approach, including the ScotStat Board, is so welcome. 

I would be very happy to discuss further, or to explore these issues with the ScotStat Board itself. 

I am copying this letter to the Minister for Parliamentary Business, Janet Egdell of National Records of Scotland, Scott Heald of Public Health Scotland, and the co-chairs of the ScotStat Board. 

 Yours sincerely,  

Ed Humpherson
Director General for OSR 

 

Related Correspondence:

Alastair McAlpine to Ed Humpherson: Statistical Strategic Priorities in Scotland