More statistical fury

Officials at the UK Statistics Authority continue to seethe at the way in which Gordon Brown's closest advisors issued a "fact sheet" on knife crime through the Home Office last month.

You may recall how the authority's chairman, Sir Michael Scholar, wrote a stinking letter to the permanent secretary at Number Ten in which he described the premature release of "unchecked statistics" as "corrosive of public trust" and "incompatible with the high standards which we are all seeking to establish"

Sir Michael was exercised by the way Downing Street ignored the personal pleas of the Chief Statistician to delay publication of hospital statistics on A&E admissions for stab wounds because they hadn't been properly checked.

uksa_notes203.jpgBut it is now clear that almost every bit of data in the release has got the statistics watchdog hopping with indignation [pdf].