Royal Statistical Society Social Statistics Section
and the Social Research Association
15 November 2005, 5.00pm, at the Royal Statistical Society (tea from 4.30pm)
The 2005 Cathie Marsh Memorial Lecture
Public Confidence in Official Statistics
Each year, the government spends millions of pounds producing official
statistics. But do policy actors and the public understand and trust
official statistics and what are the implications of a lack of trust for
policy debates? These are some of the issues that will be raised at this
year's annual Cathie Marsh Memorial lecture.
Mike Hughes (Director of the National Statistics and Planning Group, ONS)
will talk about recent ONS research, outlining the genesis of the work, the
methods used, what the results have told us about trust in official
statistics and the issues raised by the research. Suzanne Hall, (Qual
HotHouse team, MORI) will talk about the results of a recent qualitative
study with key opinion formers, addressing the reasons for a growing
mistrust in government statistics and ways in which it could be combatted.
The final speaker is Simon Briscoe (Economics Editor, Financial Times),
author of the recently published 'Britain in Numbers: The Essential
Statistics'.
Alison Park from the National Centre for Social Research and co-director of
the British Social Attitudes since 1994 will be the discussant for the
presentations. David Rhind, Chairman of the Statistics Commission and Vice
Chancellor of City University, will chair this exciting and informative
event.
The lecture will take place at the Royal Statistical Society headquarters,
12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX (see
http://www.rss.org.uk/about/direction.html for a map and directions). It
starts with tea/coffee at 4:30pm, and ends with a drinks reception at
7:00pm, kindly sponsored by BMRB International. There is no charge for this
event, however demand for places is expected to be high. It is strongly
recommended that you register in advance either by email [log in to unmask]
or by phone 020 7638 8998.
The Royal Statistical Society and Social Research Association look forward
to welcoming you.
Sponsored by BMRB
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