Dear Abbie and Damon,

Compliance review of Justice Data Lab statistics

We have completed our compliance review of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)’s Justice Data Lab (JDL) statistics. Our review examined the extent to which the JDL statistics meet the standards of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value in the Code of Practice for Statistics, with a focus on statistical methods, data collection and the presentation of the statistics.

We found that JDL analyses are underpinned by a consistent and rigorous methodology. Having reviewed the statistical methods in depth, we are assured about JDL’s approach to statistical significance testing. We welcome your team’s close engagement with intervention programme providers and its renewed focus on user engagement.

As a result of our review, we have identified six recommendations to improve the Trustworthiness, Quality and Value of the statistics, with a focus on quality and methods information and the presentation of the statistics.

We expect the recommendation on impartial and objective presentation of the statistics to be implemented immediately as this is critical to ensuring Code compliance. We will continue to engage with your team as it implements the remaining recommendations.

I am grateful for the positive engagement from your team throughout the review.

I am copying this letter to Elizabeth Richards, Deputy Director for Reducing Reoffending Analysis; Lisa Robinson, Head of Accommodation and JDL Analysis; and Annie Sorbie, Lead Statistician.

Yours sincerely,

Rob Kent-Smith

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Related

Compliance review of Justice Data Lab statistics (December 2025)

OSR to Sai: Methodology of Justice Data Lab statistics (Correspondence December 2024 to February 2025)