Dear Eugene
Thank you for your letter regarding the Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics: Urgent and Emergency Care publication, and the change to the data source for ambulance service data.
Given the fact that you have not yet been able to fully familiarise yourself with the new data for the ambulance response times and assure yourself of its quality, I agree to your request to temporarily suspend the accreditation of the NIAS sourced data contained within the Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics: Urgent and Emergency Care publication. This suspension should also apply to previous releases impacted by this quality concern and a notice published explaining to users the concerns you have and the work you are doing to investigate these issues.
I note that you plan to carry out a Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) exercise, and there is useful guidance on our website to assist you with this. I also note that you intend to label this part of the statistical release official statistics in development. We have published Official Statistics in Development guidance to help producers understand when and how to use this label.
My team will be happy to liaise with you about the most appropriate timing for a review of the Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics. This will take place once you have completed your review and 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