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Statements of support for the RSS campaign on public statistics 


Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion 2010-2024
 
Written for the RSS 2024 conference session – ‘Official statistics for the public as well as for public policy’
 
Throughout my time in politics, I’ve firmly believed you’ve got to speak to people’s emotions and tell compelling stories. That is how to win hearts and minds. Statistics are an important part of those stories too, a way of supporting the narrative, especially if they are meaningful to your audience and connect with them – not just percentages.

So, when issues are not on a government’s agenda it can be frustrating to find a gaping hole left by a lack of statistics. It’s easy for a minister to claim there is no evidence of something when in fact it’s simply missing from the official statistical picture of the UK.

The United Nations has a clear vision for statistics – that “Official statistics provide an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation.”

The reality, in my experience, falls short of this. So often it is the needs and agendas of the government of the day that take precedence and influence the availability, frequency, and detail of official statistics.

Moreover, governments are not afraid of quoting official statistics in ways that, in their view, present them in the best light. For example, we recently had a Prime Minister who claimed economic success on the basis of one quarter’s growth in the UK GDP figures, ignoring what had happened to the economy over recent years.

And why focus just on GDP? It is widely recognised that GDP growth is not a measure of societal progress. It fails to count damage caused to the environment, societies, and people by market economy activities, as well as, for example, the contributions of volunteers, carers, and many others on whom we all rely. We need wider statistics, to  set economic figures in context, to reflect our understanding that the economy, society, and the environment are all inter-related.

In this instance, and countless others, discourse, debate, and public policy would be so much better if the public, businesses, the media, and local government had access to the same statistics as the government - and at the same time.

That would help to challenge misuse, hold government to account, tell more compelling and accurate stories, as well as meet the UN’s goal of better serving democracy.

So I was heartened to hear that the RSS is campaigning for more public statistics, to pivot official statistics processes towards identifying and addressing questions that need statistics to help answer them. When we know the important questions, then we can look for relevant and reliable statistics, rather than being restricted to the available official statistics, with their limitations and gaps.

Looking around, we seem to be awash with data. And we are living in an age in which experts are derided and mistrusted. One in which myths and lies go viral at the drop of a hat and take decades to dispel.

What’s surely needed is a more trusted way of promoting the public good. A wider range of reliable sources that we can all confidently draw on and know to be independent. That sounds like the real mission of official statistical organisations and much closer to the UN vision. The foundations for well- grounded stories that help to address our concerns and issues.

Official statistics are important to our democracy. I am sorry that I can’t be with you today to discuss them. I send my best wishes for a productive conference session, which I hope will encourage and enable the RSS to take further its campaign for more public statistics – statistics for the public as well as for public policy.
 
15.07.2024

Office for Statistics Regulation

The RSS ‘Public Statistics’ report highlights the importance of starting with user need when thinking about public good, and how access into and insight from a wide range of datasets from inside and outside government can meet that user need. 
 
This approach is shared by the Office for Statistics Regulation, as we are also advocating for:
 
  • Statistics producers to consider a wide range of users, not just Government users; 
  • More engagement with statistics users to serve their needs and really help statistics make sense of issues and topics, (a reoccurring theme in OSR’s assessments of statistics); 
  • Applying the Code of Practice for Statistics, (which we are currently refreshing), to place user confidence at the heart of statistical production, echoing the RSS call for recognising the role of statistics as the lifeblood of democratic debate; 
  • Being strong advocates for the role played by data that are not official statistics – through our programme of voluntary adoption; and 
  • OSR has continually pressed for a better system of data sharing and linkage for researchers inside government and beyond. Yesterday we published an update on the recommendations to enable greater data sharing and linkage for research and statistics to support public good.  
Both the OSR and RSS recognise that there are significant challenges to realising this joint goal of better public statistics but remain committed to making progress and securing our societal vision as reality. 

In addition, the RSS report highlights the importance of the Code of Practice for Statistics; praises OSR’s research programme; and sees an essential role for OSR in the development of public statistics in the future. It also echoes strongly the focus on transparency of evidence set out by Ed Humpherson, OSR’s Director General, at the Public Administration Committee in February 2024 as the concluding session of its enquiry into the UK’s evidence base. 

Ed Humpherson, Director General of OSR, said:  

“OSR really appreciates the RSS’s support for our role as regulator and we strongly support the focus on public statistics. I am excited to work with the RSS on making a reality of this approach, which recognises the importance of statistics beyond immediate Government users – the importance to citizens, companies, communities and charities.  

“We take our role to guide the statistics system very seriously and have just published our latest annual report that provides an objective analysis of the UK’s statistical system, its current state, and its future direction. This is our view on the system’s performance, its successes and its challenges, and highlights opportunities for innovation and progress to promote the use of statistics in public debate.” 

July 2024