Dear Roger
Assessment of Statistics from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey
The Office for Statistics Regulation has completed its assessment of the statistics from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
During the course of this Assessment your team has shown enthusiasm and commitment to making improvements to the value, quality and trustworthiness of these statistics. In particular we welcome the positive approach taken by the team to innovate, seeking ways to further improve the statistics.
These statistics are essential in providing a current view of the experience of victims of crime and confidence in the criminal justice system in Scotland. They estimate the trends in the main crime types, as well as providing important insight into the experience of highly sensitive crimes such as partner abuse and sexual offences. In the context of crime and justice being a devolved matter, it is also encouraging to see the considerable efforts made by your team to work collaboratively across the UK countries.
We judge that National Statistics (NS) designation for the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey statistics may continue subject to you demonstrating to us that you have enhanced the value, quality and trustworthiness of these statistics in the ways described in the Assessment Report. As previously agreed, you are due to report back to us by 31 October 2017 outlining how you have improved each of those three aspects to address the points raised in the report.
Reflecting the importance of NS designation and to provide users with confidence in the direction of travel, I encourage you to publish a plan of proposed actions to increase public value, quality and trustworthiness as a result of this Assessment.
Please feel free to discuss any aspect of this with us at any time.
Yours sincerely
Ed Humpherson