To:

Stuart Homann, Environment Agency 

Simon Toms, Environment Agency 

Steven King, Natural Resources Wales 

Ben Wilson, Natural Resources Wales 

David Maxwell, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science 

Alan Walker, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science 

 

Dear all,

We have recently been in touch with you and your colleagues involved in producing the Assessment of Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales statistics. This publication is jointly produced by the Environment Agency (EA), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). Given the proposed changes to methods and reporting for these statistics, we have agreed to carry out a short review to offer advice, support and recommendations to help you manage these changes in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We expect the review to broadly cover:

• Changes to methods: How users and stakeholders have been informed of the proposed changes to methods; assured that the proposed methods are sound and provide the best available estimates; told about any impact on the statistics; and given the opportunity to feed in to decision making.
• Changes to reporting: How users and stakeholders have been considered in the proposed changes to reporting; informed about the changes and how their needs will continue to be met; and how outputs will be accessible and continue to provide clarity and insight that serve the public good.
• Institutional governance and statistical leadership: The review will consider aspects of decision-making, transparent processes and the orderly release of statistics. We will focus on salmon statistics, but any recommendations are likely to apply at an organisation level.

If we find that advice or recommendations on areas outside this scope would be helpful to ensure the statistics serve the public good, we will include these in the review.

I look forward to working with you and your teams.

I am copying this letter to Ian Lonsdale, Head of Profession for Statistics, Defra.

Yours sincerely

Siobhan Tuohy-Smith

Assessment Programme Lead