The Royal Statistical Society is backing calls made in a UK Statistics Authority report on pre-release access (published 18 March 2010) for a big reduction in ministerial access to official statistics before their formal publication. The reduction is needed to help turn around public perception of political interference in official statistics, the Society says. The Society is also supporting a call for the power to make the rules on pre-release access to be transferred to the Authority.

A full day’s access is normally available for Whitehall ministers, with those in Scotland and Wales enjoying up to five days access. The Society is backing the UK Statistics Authority call for access to normally be no more than three hours, and for this to be the standard across the UK.

Commenting on the review the president of the Royal Statistical Society, Professor David Hand, said:

“Public confidence in official statistics is at appallingly low levels. The most recent official survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics showed that only one in five people thought that official figures were compiled without political interference.

“Extensive ministerial access to statistics before publication can only fuel the public lack of confidence. Severely curtailing pre-release access to three hours throughout the UK, as the Statistics Authority recommend, would send a strong and clear message that public confidence is paramount. The Society itself has argued for no pre-release access as is the case in a number of countries.

“Parliament passed the Statistics and Registration Service Act in 2007 to give independence to the official statistical system. But because the power to make the pre-release access rules was not given to the UK Statistics Authority, the public are unlikely to believe that the system is fully independent. The Society therefore strongly supports the recommendation that this power should now be handed over to the UK Statistics Authority.

“Official statistics are not just for government. They are the means by which citizens can judge government on its performance and make decisions about their own lives. High levels of trust are essential if this aspect of democracy is to be served well, and that means ensuring that the official statistical system is unequivocally seen as independent. We will be pressing the case for Parliament to complete the job it started in 2007 with the Statistics and Registration Service Act in our full submission to the Cabinet Office inquiry.”