Dear Ed
Assessment of Accident and Emergency (A&E) Activity Statistics in Scotland
Thank you for your letter dated 27 July 2023 relating to the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)’s assessment of the A&E statistics published by Public Health Scotland.
I am pleased that your team have assessed that our monthly publication can continue as “National Statistics”, and that the complementary weekly publication will be granted “National Statistics” status for the first time, on completion of the three requirements outlined in the assessment report. I can confirm that PHS is responding proactively to these requirements. Work is already underway to address them and PHS is committed to meeting them within the timelines you have indicated. I will write to you with a progress update during September 2023.
Thank you for your positive comments relating to the open way in which our team interacted with your regulators, and on the new platform for reporting statistics on A&E departments, in particular the comments from users who highlighted the improved accessibility and functionality of this new way of reporting. This approach to reporting is our proposed direction of travel for all PHS statistical releases and we are planning a consultation with users of all our statistics later this year, with an intention to build on this innovative work on our A&E statistics.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there are any further areas you would like to discuss with me.
Your sincerely,
Scott Heald
Head of Profession for Statistics,
Public Health Scotland.
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Assessment of Accident and Emergency (A&E) Activity Statistics in Scotland