The Department of Work and Pension has been rapped on the knuckles for “serious deficiencies” over statistical claims about the number of people who have never worked (see Straight Statistics yesterday).
 
Sir Michael Scholar, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, says in a letter that this analysis was issued selectively, and without its source (the ONS Labour Force Statistics) being given. “These were, in my view, serous deficiencies in DWP’s arrangements and I have drawn their attention to them.”
 
The ruling was in response to a complaint made by the website Full Fact. The issue is whether, by producing analyses of statistics for use by ministers and releasing them to a limited number of journalists, the DWP was  breaching the spirit or the letter of the Code of Practice on official statistics.
 
Sir Michael’s letter says that the DWP is taking steps to ensure public access to such ad hoc statistical analyses that are not part of their usual suite of regular publications. He sees no objection in principle, so long as the data are presented fairly and accurately, and the public has access to the database concerned.
 
In the case of claims made on fhe length of time some people had been in receipt of benefits, the data is available in the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study and a similar analysis could be made by members of the public using the online tabulation tool on the department’s website.
 
However, in respect of the analysis of the number of people who had never worked, neither the analysis nor the press release containing it was made publicly available, nor the source disclosed.
 
When producing new analyses that are used in public statements, the DWP has been told by the National Statistician, Jil Matheson, that they must ensure the statstics are published and accessible to non-government analysts, in a transparent way. “The Statistics Authority regards complaince with this principle as central to retaining trust in offical figures” Sir Michael concludes.
 
His letter is available on the UKSA website, and attached as a file below.