Commission Meeting: 17/01/08 - Draft response to consultation on pre-release access to statistics - SC/2008/02

DRAFT RESPONSE TO CABINET OFFICE/TREASURY CONSULTATION ON PRE-RELEASE ACCESS TO STATISTICS

ACTION FOR MEETING: To consider the Commission’s draft response and, in particular the suggested amendments to the draft Order.

Introduction

1. The attached draft letter is proposed as a response to the recently launched consultation on ‘Limiting the pre-release access to statistics’ by HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office, published on 10 December 2007.  The consultation document sets out the draft statutory Order to be made under the Statistics and Registration Service Act. 

2. Responses to the consultation need to be submitted by 3 March 2007 and will inform the final proposal, which will be put to Parliament for approval by the Minister for the Cabinet Office. We assume there will be further consultation with the Statistics Board and others at that stage. The Government aims to have the principles and rules in place as soon as possible after the start of the new system in April 2008.

The draft response

3. The draft response is self-explanatory. It has benefited from discussions with the Royal Statistical Society and it challenges several of the assumptions and statements in the consultation document. It ends by proposing a set of realistic and achievable amendments to the draft Order. Ultimately it is the Order that matters and a copy of the draft from the consultation document is also attached.

NOTE: THE STATISTICS COMMISSION HAS NOW RESPONDED TO THE CONSULTATION ON PRE-RELEASE ACCESS TO STATISTISTICS. OUR SUBMISSION CAN BE VIEWED HERE.