There is an 'Open Meeting' on the Draft Code of Practice at 1500 hrs on
Monday 28th January 2002 at the Royal Statistical Society, London.
The speakers scheduled are Len Cook (National Statistician) and Sir John
Kingman (Chair of the Statistics Commission).
The Code of Practice itself seems an innocuous document in that it
summarises what the ONS believes is its current practice. But the chance to
debate that practice is unprecedented and the opportunity to do so in such
an open-ended situation is unlikely to be ever be repeated.
The situation is 'open-ended' because the Code promises the production of a
number of
Protocols covering problem areas. Only two sets of Protocols are
published with the Code itself at
<http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about_ns/consultations.asp>. One set of
draft Protocols is for Consultation arrangements between the National
Statistician and Ministers. The other is about Release Practices. Only
the subject matter is given for another 11 protocols promised. The promised
protocols cover
'user consultation',
'customer service',
'professional competence',
'revisions policy',
'presentation, dissemination and pricing',
'data confidentiality, disclosure and access',
'data matching',
'data documentation management and preservation',
'respondent burden',
'quality management', and
'statistical integration'.
The idea of these Protocols seems quite new, and it may be difficult for the
ONS to
ignore suggestions made about what these Protocols should say. There will
probably be some discussion of these protocols on the Radstats and
unemployment-research email lists.
The status of the Draft Code of Practice is that of a Consultation Document.
The Consultation period ends on 28th March.
Ray Thomas, Social Sciences, Open University
Tel: 01908 679081 Fax 01908 550401
Email: [log in to unmask]
35 Passmore, Milton Keynes MK6 3DY
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