This is one of a series of reports prepared under the provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. The Act gives the Statistics Authority power to re-assess whether the Code of Practice for Official Statistics continues to be complied with in relation to official statistics already designated as National Statistics. The report covers the set of statistics reported in the following publications, produced by the Scottish Government:
• Summary statistics for attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living (Attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living)
• Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland (Schools in Scotland)
1.1.2 The previous assessment of these sets of statistics was reported in Assessment report 50. The statistics are being re-assessed because the Scottish Government substantially changed the way that it presented the statistics covered in the previous Assessment report, partly as a response to the Requirements in the previous assessment. This is discussed further in paragraph 2.2 of this report. These changes were also examined in the Authority’s Statistical Expenditure Report (SER) on Scottish Schools Statistics.
1.1.3 The Act allows an appropriate authority to request an assessment of other official statistics in order for them to gain National Statistics status. In response to such a request, this report also covers the set of statistics reported in Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN).
1.1.4 Section 3 of this report adopts an ‘exception reporting’ approach – it includes text only to support the Requirements made to strengthen compliance with the Code and Suggestions made to improve confidence in the production, management and dissemination of these statistics. This abbreviated style of report reflects the Head of Assessment’s consideration of aspects of risk and materiality. The Assessment team nonetheless assessed compliance with all parts of the Code of Practice and has commented on all those in respect of which some remedial action is recommended.
This report was prepared by the Authority’s Assessment team, and approved by the Assessment Committee on behalf of the Board of the Statistics Authority, based on the advice of the Head of Assessment.
Statistics on Schools and Pupils in Scotland: Letter of Confirmation as National Statistics (1)