Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Official Report 763KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Official Statistics (Scotland) Amendment Order 2019 [Draft]

Item 2 is subordinate legislation. I welcome Kate Forbes, who is the Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy. She has with her Gregor Boyd, who is a senior statistician from the office of the chief statistician and data officer, and Poppy Wilson, who is one of her officials.

I will hand over to the minister to allow her to make a very brief opening statement on the instrument.

Thank you, convener—it will be brief.

Our aim in updating the Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008 is to increase the quality and value of statistics that are used to inform debate. To support that aim, we have been working with a range of public bodies to build their statistical capabilities. However, to be able to produce official statistics, non-Crown public bodies need to be listed in legislation and named by order.

The purpose of the amendment order is to extend the definition of official statistics in the United Kingdom Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 to include statistics that are produced by seven non-Crown bodies. Those are Bòrd na Gàidhlig, NHS Education for Scotland, Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Qualifications Authority, Skills Development Scotland and VisitScotland. Bringing those public bodies into the scope of official statistics will, we hope, provide public reassurance of the quality of the statistics that they produce and ensure that they are as transparent as possible.

The 2008 order was previously amended in 2012, when five additional bodies were named. Since then, a wide range of organisations have been developing their analytical functions and are now keen to be recognised as producers of official statistics. Following consultation this year, we recommended adding those bodies.

Naming additional producers of official statistics will bring even more data and statistics into the scope of the UK Statistics Authority’s “Code of Practice for Statistics” and will ensure that the statistics that are produced by the seven bodies can be designated as official. It means that they will produce and publish to the professional standards that are set out in the code. Incidentally, the UK Statistics Authority is a non-ministerial department that was created by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, with a statutory objective to safeguard and promote the quality of official statistics.

We have engaged with a number of organisations that produce statistics in Scotland to discuss bringing their statistics into the definition of official data. Our approach is to name only the bodies that are now in a position to produce official statistics and have the resources and data in place to produce high quality official statistics. We will continue to engage with public bodies and declare any official candidates in the future. I am happy to take any questions.

Thank you, minister. You said at the end of your statement that the bodies are in a position to produce official statistics and have the resources to do so. What process has been under way to allow you to come to that conclusion?

There has been an active process over the past few years. Each of the seven bodies has a slightly different story with regard to its progress to the point where it believes that it has the capability with regard to the integrity of its data and the resources to support the production of the statistics. The new order has been under consideration for several years. The first order was scrutinised in, I think, 2008, and when we previously came before the committee, we set out our belief that an orderly approach to naming new producers of statistics was in the best interest of maintaining trust. We have taken time to consider which bodies are in a position to be named and have engaged with them along the way. For example, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has probably been in a position to produce those statistics for longer, and others have probably taken a bit more time to get there.

My question was about what process has been undertaken to ensure that the organisations have the capacity and resources. You said that they believe that they have the ability. Did the UK Statistics Authority undergo some process with them? Is it more than just a belief?

I will ask Gregor Boyd to take you through the process.

The process has been led by the office of the chief statistician in the Scottish Government. We have involved the regulator, and we have had joint events with the regulator for the non-Crown bodies to help them to understand what is required of them and to satisfy the chief statistician that the bodies are ready to produce official statistics.

Thank you.

I have a question for Mr Boyd. Is there a quality assurance scheme to ensure that those organisations and others are producing reliable statistics on an on-going basis?

This is just the start of the process. We are keen to support the organisations and the producers, and we will do so. How it will work is that the office of the chief statistician will make available professional support, training and guidance to the organisations. Each organisation will be allocated to the analytical topic area in the Scottish Government that is most relevant to them and will be provided with day-to-day advice and support by it.

Your answer is about advice and support. My question was about how you will ensure that the quality of the statistics that they produce meets the standards. What checks will be in place to ensure that?

That is not quite a role for us. We see the Office for Statistics Regulation as being responsible for making sure that the organisations produce stats of the required quality.

Minister, is that correct? Who is responsible for ensuring that the statistics that are produced meet the standards?

There are two perspectives on that. The first is about ensuring that the quality of the core data is adequate, for which there will be the on-going support that Gregor Boyd spoke about to ensure that the bodies have the resources and capability to produce the data. When the data is published, the regulator’s role is to ensure that the data that is produced continues to meet the high standards that are expected.

Thank you. The deputy convener has a question.

Minister, I want to put a marker down with this question. When the organisations produce statistics for us, will they be able to report per constituency? My understanding is that there is not much statistical output in the Parliament that relates to our constituencies. I am sure that it would be of interest to those of us who represent constituencies to be able to understand what is happening in them. It is very rare to get such understanding. I want to put down a marker for the possibility of moving towards that at some stage.

That is an interesting observation and I will take it away with me. It is for those arm’s-length organisations to determine the format in which they publish the data, but your point is certainly one to be raised with them. I believe that the committee has already had sight of what data each of the bodies will produce. Obviously, some parts of that data would be easier than others to cut on a more local basis.

As part of the Scottish Government’s offer to those organisations, we will provide them with access to, and encourage them to use, the statistics.gov.scot open data platform, which is our means of disseminating small area statistics, including at constituency level. We want to publish as much as we can at those levels.

Thank you.

As there are no further questions from members, we move to agenda item 3, which is the formal debate on the motion to approve the affirmative instrument. As no member wishes to speak, I invite the minister to simply move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee recommends that the Official Statistics (Scotland) Amendment Order 2019 [draft] be approved.—[Kate Forbes]

Motion agreed to.

In light of the timing for this Scottish statutory instrument, I ask the committee to agree that I and the clerk produce a short factual report on the committee’s decision and arrange to have it published. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

I suspend the meeting briefly to allow the minister to leave and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work to come in for the next item.

09:57 Meeting suspended.  

09:58 On resuming—