Dear Pete
Following discussions with your vital events team, I am happy to confirm the exemption from the Code of Practice for Statistics’ standard publication time of 9.30am to permit a later release time of noon each Wednesday for NRS’s weekly deaths statistics. Given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic I welcome your endeavours to publish information on deaths weekly rather than to your usual monthly timescale.
I also welcome your decision to try to publish statistics in as timely a way as possible, supported by clear narrative and explanation of the data to bring clarity to public debate. This results in a tight turnaround of the death registrations. The exemption from 9.30am publication, and publication at noon, allows more time for appropriate quality assurance of the data and preparation of the statistics each week.
Yours sincerely
Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation