Dear Stephanie,

Wales Cancer Services Statistics designation

Thank you for your letter asking us to consider designating the Welsh cancer services statistics as National Statistics. I welcome the new approach that has been established for these statistics, as well as the steps you have taken to assure yourselves of their quality and ability to meet users’ needs.

Your statisticians have engaged with my team in a positive and constructive manner. They have provided a comprehensive outline of their review of the statistics. My team is satisfied both with the activities they have undertaken and the conclusions they have reached. We are also pleased to hear about your plans to carry out wider stakeholder engagement to identify ways in which you can further improve the existing outputs. As part of this engagement, it may be helpful for you to publish details of the work you have done to ensure the suitability of the new method, as well as your future plans.

On the basis that the new method is now well established, and you have demonstrated the data to be an improvement over the previous method, I agree that these statistics meet the standards required for National Statistics and am happy to designate them as such.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation