Dear Ed, We are writing as President and as Vice President, Education and Statistical Literacy of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) to ask formally that the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) conduct a measured review of the statistical models that qualifications regulators across the UK put in place, and the process by which they did […]
Dear Eugene PUBLICATION OF OPEN AND ACCESSIBLE COVID-19 DATA IN NORTHERN IRELAND The Department of Health (NI) dashboard provides a wealth of data on COVID-19. Over the past months we have seen improvements to the dashboard, for example the inclusion of time series data for care home outbreaks. We appreciate the work you and your team are doing to respond to user needs. In previous communications with my […]
Dear Will COVID-19: test times response at PMQs 3 June 2020 Thank you very much for your letter of 14 July outlining your concerns with the availability of the data underpinning the Prime Minister’s response during Prime Minister’s Questions on 3 June. I am sorry it has taken so long to respond. This is because my team has investigated two distinct issues: what […]
Dear Ed, We’re aware, following the UKSA’s recent correspondence with the Health Secretary, that the OSR is working with the Department for Health and Social Care on improving testing data. As you’ll be aware, Full Fact has been checking claims on testing from all sides throughout the pandemic, and we wanted to raise a specific […]
Dear Iain, Thank you for your letter. I am content with the approach you have taken to ensuring data were in the public domain to inform key decisions. This was sensible and proportionate in the circumstances. Yours sincerely Ed Humpherson Director General for Regulation Related Links Iain Bell to Ed Humpherson: Covid-19 infection […]
Dear Ed, We continue to review many aspects of statistical production and publication with regards to informing measures to respond COVID-19. The latest results of the COVID-19 Infection Survey were published at 11am today, brought forward from the originally scheduled 12pm publication time. This was discussed and agreed between ONS and the OSR before the […]
Dear Siobhan STATISTICS FROM THE NORTHERN IRELAND SAFE COMMUNITY SURVEY (NISCS) We have completed our review of the compliance of statistics from the Northern Ireland Safe Community Survey, produced by the Department of Justice (DoJ), with the Code of Practice for Statistics. This was the final part of our three-part review, which began in May […]
Dear Roger Use of COVID-19 prevalence rates by Scottish Government On 3 July First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in her COVID-19 speech, claimed that the prevalence of the virus in Scotland is five times lower than it is in England. The sources used to underpin this claim have been difficult to identify. The explanation provided to my team […]
Dear Mr Macdonald Thank you for your letter of 3 July about the use of figures in a press release of 10 June by Public Health Scotland (PHS) concerning the impact of the first year of the Scottish Government’s policy on minimum unit pricing for alcohol. You were concerned that the data used in the press release […]
Dear Mr Humpherson, I write to raise concerns about a press release from a new Scottish Government agency, Public Health Scotland, published on 10 June 2020. It was issued with a report containing a statistical analysis of the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) on off-sales of alcohol in the first year after the policy […]