Public value of justice statistics

The statistics published by the UK’s justice systems make them more transparent than in many other countries beyond the UK. Statistics users recognise this and are positive about available resources. In our review, we heard from producers with strong aspirations to continue developing their statistics to add more value. Our work demonstrates several opportunities to increase value, through greater innovation, by highlighting exclusion and fairness, and by increasing coherence. We expand on each of these in our review.

The fact that large parts of the justice system across the UK are currently being digitised could help to address the challenges of working with what we heard were disparate and, what can be, outdated management information systems. We heard concerns, though, that there is a risk that statistical gains might not be realised fully. We will follow-up with producers to identify how we might help them do this. We will publish updates on this and other follow-up work as it develops.

Our work in this review also fed in to a separate project on data sharing and linkage which looks to address the UK statistical system’s ability to answer pertinent questions by using linked data from different sources and different data providers. We expect to publish a report of our findings and proposed actions in August.

We are always happy to hear your views about anything we have discussed here or about any other aspect of crime and justice statistics.

Email Pat MacLeod Tel. 020 7592 8657