The Report on public confidence in official statistics at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about/data/public_confidence/downloads/BritishOfficialStat.pdf
does nothing to increase confidence in official statistics. It seems
to be the culmination of several years of proclamations by the ONS
that British statistics are the best in the world because the ONS says
they are. They are audited by the ONS and self-certificated by the
ONS. But ONS surveys show that public confidence in official
statistics has never been lower.
The report cited above attempts to explain the public lack of
confidence in term of declining confidence in government institutions
generally. In other words because Tony Blair lied/was deceived about
Iraq that has rubbed off in tarnishing the image of the ONS! The
report cited above fails to allow for the possibility that declining
confidence has anything to do with ONS outputs.
My experience has been that questions to the ONS of to the Statistics
Commission about the quality of official statistics are ignored or
side-tracked. So I have put some questions, reproduced below, to Len
Cook the National Statistician under the Freedom of Information Act.
I have been promised a reply within 20 working days.
Ray Thomas
*************************************
1/ What has been the cost of surveys conducted by the ONS about
public
confidence in official statistics?
2/ Why have these surveys been limited to other countries, and to
focus
groups and 'opinion-formers' in Britain?
3/ What evidence was used to decide that in Britain public confidence
did
not depend upon the quality and qualities of official statistics?
I have of course already noted the evidence given in ONS papers, cited
from
other countries and the evidence cited for a general decline in trust
in
British government, that might be considered relevant to question 2/.
So I
do not require repetition of these points.
My question 3/ relates specifically the quality and qualities of
official
statistics in Britain.
****************************************
******************************************************
Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your
message will go only to the sender of this message.
If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's
'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically
to [log in to unmask]
*******************************************************
|