A session of the Royal Statistical Society’s conference early in September will address the question, ‘Have the government expenditure cutbacks undermined the statistical base in the UK?’.

The National Statistician, the UK Statistics Authority, and Radical Statistics have each been asked to contribute their views. The latter have been asked partly because of their blog’s entries on the subject: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/reduced-statistics/

The session will be important means of marking the changes in statistical output and research since May 2010, in government (central and local), universities and other agencies, but there are few ways of monitoring these changes. We are working with others on the Radical Statistics contribution and would appreciate all examples that readers of this email can identify. They may concern, among other instances:

– an analysis done in the past that could not be done now because a dataset or series is discontinued

– a policy that cannot be fully evaluated because data are no longer collected, or definitions have changed

– a reduction in the availability, robustness, or quality of data or their interpretation.

– staff or services to support data users, which have been terminated

Please send details to ReducedStatistics@radstats.org.uk

Thanks,

Ludi Simpson
Alex Fenton
Posted by
Dr Jenny Phillimore
Institute of Applied Social Studies
School of Social Policy
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
Tel: 0121 414 7822