News releases

Released: 4 December 2012

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) published the report it commissioned from Deloitte on the economic benefits of mathematical science research in the UK. The Council for the Mathematical Sciences (CMS) and the learned societies worked in partnership with the EPSRC and provided evidence, but the report is an independent study by the consulting firm Deloitte. The report reflects the excellence of the UK mathematics research base, and the impressive and far-reaching impact of the mathematical sciences.

Levels of inequality in the UK have returned to heights last experienced at the start of the Second World War, Professor Danny Dorling will set out in giving the Royal Statistical Society’s Beveridge Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, 27 June 2012.

The factors that play a part in deciding which football legends - such as Leeds United's own Don Revie - are honoured with a statue will be set out at a free public meeting being held at 3:30pm on Tuesday 24th April 2012 at Leeds City Museum.
 

The Royal Statistical Society has welcomed Andrew Dilnot in his new role chair of the UK Statistics Authority and praised the work of his predecessor, Sir Michael Scholar. The handover took effect on 1 April 2012, four years after the UK Statistics Authority was created by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

A major overhaul of the teaching of statistics and a change in policy makers’ appreciation of statistics is essential if advantage is to be taken of the increasing economic importance of data-driven technologies, concludes a report for The Royal Statistical Society and The Actuarial Profession, The Future of Statistics in our Schools and Colleges..

The recommendation by the Independent Mathematics Taskforce, chaired by Carol Vorderman, that all young people should continue to study mathematics after the age of 16 has been warmly welcomed by the UK professional statisticians’ organisation.

People across the UK are being urged to fill out their census forms. From local and individual decisions to business, charities and researchers to the country as a whole, Census information is vital for everyone, says the Royal Statistical Society (RSS).

The Royal Statistical Society will be launching a new Careers website this year.

Data held by the Ministry of Justice on nearly half a million urine samples in its random mandatory drugs testing (RMDT) of prisoners could be more effectively used.

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.

The Society has expressed its delight for Bernard Silverman on his appointment as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office. Professor Silverman has said that he will be standing down as President as he felt that because of the Society's crucial role as an independent voice in the official and public arena, it would be inappropriately confusing for him to serve as President at the same time

The announcement that Jil Matheson is to succeed Dame Karen Dunnell as the National Statistician has been welcomed by the Royal Statistical Society, and the challenges facing her set out.

The report by the UK Statistics Authority on the release by the Office of National Statistics of employment statistics classified by country of birth, taken alongside its previous report on the Home Office premature release of knife crime statistics, confirms that the Authority is the independent and impartial body that Parliament intended, says the Royal Statistical Society.

In his speech, Professor David Hand stated that statistics as a discipline must promote its wider brand image or risk being marginalised.

The rules are the first of several far-reaching changes resulting from the passage of the Statistics and Registration Service Act last year.

The Royal Statistical Society notes with pleasure the excellent RAE results for the Statistics and Operational Research submissions and for the Mathematical Sciences as a whole.

The Royal Statistical Society welcomes the government's announcement that a pilot of a pair of GCSEs in mathematics will be carried out from 2010.

The creation of the new UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) will not automatically cure the crisis in public confidence in official statistics, warns the Royal Statistical Society.