Dear Liz 

Temporary suspension of National Statistics status for estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales

Thank you for your letter of 14 July asking us to consider a temporary suspension of the National Statistics status for the estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). 

We support your proposal to publish the forthcoming CSEW estimates without the National Statistics badge, based on your concerns about data quality, specifically, the low response rate for face-to-face interviews and the reduced time-period of data for estimates. It is positive that you are thinking proactively about how to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics in these circumstances, and that you are using the temporary suspension to back up your concerns around quality. The temporary suspension demonstrates transparency and supports user interpretation of the statistics.  

We welcome your ongoing efforts to improve the response rate. It would be good to hear more about your plans to get back to the standard required of National Statistics and what you expect to achieve in the next year. Our Crime and Security domain will continue to engage with your team on this.  

I am copying this letter to Meghan Elkin and Peter Jones, Joint Heads of the Office for National Statistics Centre for Crime and Justice.  

Yours sincerely 

Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation