Rules coming into force on Monday, 1 December 2008, will stop ministers getting access to official statistics days before public release.  This is a welcome step to rebuilding trust in the statistics that directly affect our lives says the Royal Statistical Society, which campaigned vociferously for ten years to bring about these changes.
 
However, while a significant improvement, the new rules still do not bring the UK into line with best international practice where pre-release access either does not exist or is restricted to a few hours at most.
 
Ministers and their press officers previously had sight of politically sensitive statistics for up to five days before publication, so they could plan their public responses (unlike other commentators), prepare their own press notices putting spin on the figures or engage in other forms of media management. This is now sharply cut to 24 hours greatly levelling the playing field.
 
The rules are the first of several far-reaching changes resulting from the passage of the Statistics and Registration Service Act last year. The Act established a new statistics watchdog, the UK Statistics Authority, to oversee the official statistical system although it did not give the Authority control over pre-release arrangements
 
In its campaign, the Royal Statistical Society highlighted how lengthy pre-release contributed to mistrust in official statistics. An Office for National Statistics survey released in March 2008 found that "most people believed that there was political interference in the production of official figures, and that the government did not use official figures honestly".
 
Professor David Hand, President of the Royal Statistical Society states that:
"The UK has been out of step with many other countries in allowing ministers and their teams lengthy and widespread access to statistics before formal publication. The cut to 24 hours is enormously welcome. Nevertheless it does not go far enough and we are particularly disappointed that Scotland has chosen to still allow five days access.

"Pre-release access contributes to the public perception that ministers are able to gain political advantage.  Survey figures that show this undermines the public's confidence in statistics.  We also know that longer pre-release access increases the risk of statistics being leaked.  This can have major impacts if the data are market sensitive.

"Official statistics are the currency of public debate allowing people to judge how their government is doing whether it's on health, crime, education, commerce or many other areas of life.  We feel the reduction in pre-release access allows debates to happen on more equal terms.

"The Royal Statistical Society believes that the quality of UK statistics is high  and that the public deserves to feel confident in them. These new restrictions are a step in the right direction. But when arrangements are reviewed in twelve months time we hope that pre-release access will be further cut or abolished altogether."

Andrew Garratt, Press and Public Affairs Officer
Tel: 07812 176464
Email: a.garratt@rss.org.uk