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To celebrate the United Nations World Statistics Day on 20 October 2010, the Trade Statistics branch has published a brief article highlighting the history, uses, publication and governance of statistics in the UK.

Statistics can be made to prove anything even the truth

author unknown

What are statistics?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Statistics as a collection of information shown in numbers. z Statistics, therefore, can provide us with a great deal of knowledge. As Francis Bacon famously once said Knowledge is Power, and so.. Statistics are Powerful! The power of statistics has been embraced by decision makers for hundreds of years. In 1086, William I commissioned the first major statistical inventory of all land and property in England and Wales. This record told him who owned what and what taxes he was owed. Nobody could dispute his tax demands because everything was on record. As such, the record brought doom and gloom on the people of England and was thereon known as the Domesday Book. Statistics in the UK have come along way since. However, it was not until the late 18 th Century that the term Statistic was introduced to the English language and not until 1832 that the first statistics office was established, with the Royal Statistical Society being established in 1834. Britains experience of statistics, and specifically the practice of the data collection needed to produce them, has been typical. Many have supported its development as government practice, but a number have also questioned its value. One thing is certain however the government relies on facts obtained from statistics to do its job. Sense in Census. A key source of government data is the Population Census. This is a count of all people and households, and is the only survey which provides a detailed picture of the entire population the idea is to create a snapshot of the population.

A census of England and Wales is carried out every ten years. The first official census of England and Wales took place in 1801 giving a population count of 9 million. However, it was in 1841 that the first modern census took place, so called as it details the occupation of individuals rather than groups of people (as was given in censuses prior to 1841). The system used for this modern census required the head of each household to fill in a form on behalf of everyone in the household on a certain day and this still forms the basis of the method we use today. The value of the snapshot created is that combinations of circumstances can be collated to give highly detailed information for example, it is possible to work out the number of single parents with young children living in upper stories of high rise housing. This sort of information allows central and local government, health authorities and many other organisations to allocate their resources more effectively, and aids in planning for the future. The next census will take place on 27th March 2011 and will involve around 25 million households. Economic Efficiency. Another key source of government data is the range of business surveys it conducts. Information collected is usually in the form of micro-data, or unit record information the production, import or export of one particular good. As mentioned, the first statistics office was set up in 1832. Its purpose was to bring together the data on business activity that had been collected by the Board of Trade since it had formed in 1786. The result was a new department that began to publish a yearbook that gave fairly comprehensive information on imports and exports. Today, HM Revenue & Customs collects data on imports and exports, which it then makes available to the public at an extremely detailed level via the website www.uktradeinfo.com. For example, if someone wants to find out the value of banana imports from Costa Rica for a particular month or year, they can do so with ease. The Trade Statistics unit also provides data for publication in the UK Balance of Payments (The Pink Book) which details measurements of economic transactions between the UK and the rest of the world. Anyone wanting information regarding economic activity within the UK i.e. production, income and expenditure can find it in the UK National Accounts (The Blue Book). The data included in the UK Balance of Payments and National Accounts allows the government to set the UKs budget and helps control the economy. Aside from the purpose of discovering the composition of households and the character of the economy, data is also collected by government bodies to attain an impression of the nature of key social concerns ..particularly Education, Health and Crime.

Educational Excellence Education statistics are collected and processed by the Department of Education (DoE) (formerly the Department for Education and Employment). The department provides information on school and college achievement and the educational skills and services they provide. Data collected on pupil numbers and lesson time are used to calculate school performance tables and are also used to assess Local Education Authorities (LEA) support grants to schools. LEAs also use the data to decide how to allocate staff and project future pupil

numbers. Data collected by the DoE has revealed a number of interesting facts. For example, that girls have consistently out performed boys at GCSE level.

Help for Health Health statistics are produced by the Information Centre for Health and Social Care (the statistical branch of the Department of Health). Data concerned with healthcare have been collected since the start of the NHS in 1948 and provide very detailed, interesting and useful statistics. For example, in 2007/08 there were around 863,300 hospital admissions related to alcohol consumption which represented a 69% increase since 2002/03 when there were around 510,200 such admissions. The data to provide such statistics is collected from statistical returns presented by the NHS to the Department of Health. Specifically, data is collected from the following six work areas; Public Health which provides data related to the nations health (e.g. morbidity rates, smoking and drink & drug use), Health Care which provides data related to the available health services (e.g. dentistry, mental health, pharmacies and prescriptions), Social care (social services performance), Workforce (data related to doctors, nurses and other health professionals working in the NHS and social services), Expenditure (expenditure within the NHS, by NHS trusts, health authorities and social services) and Neighbourhood Statistics (e.g. data on deprived areas, lifestyle behaviour estimates for areas). Importantly, the data collected from each work area is brought together and used to create a picture of the nations health and lifestyles. In addition, they provide a measure of the performance and cost of the NHS.

Cutting Crime National statistics about crime in England and Wales have been collected and published by the Home Office since 1805. Initially, data was based on court proceedings and convictions but, from 1857, data about crimes reported to and recorded by the police were added. Today, the Home Office collects crime data in two ways. The first is to use police records for reported crimes and the second is to use the British Crime Survey (BCS). The BCS is seen as the most reliable indicator of long term crime trends as it has the potential to estimate the amount of crime not reported to the police. The data collected provides the Home Office with information about Offences, Offenders, Victims, and also public feeling about crime. It can, therefore, inform us about the nature of crime across the UK. For example, for the 12 months to August 2010, the London borough with the least amount of crime was Kingston-upon-Thames (see here) and for the year 2008/2009, residents of West Yorkshire were more likely to be burgled than anywhere else in England or Wales (see here). Over time, observations such as these allow the Home Office to gauge crime trends and initiate crime prevention strategies in response.

Can statistics be trusted?

For as long as statistics have been around, there has been a general perception that they are all too often misused - the presenter will try to find ways of interpreting the data that favours their cause. This viewpoint was famously summed up in the quotes by Benjamin Disraeli: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics . And Robert Storm Peterson: Statistics are like lampposts: they are good to lean on, but they don't shed much light . Clearly, statistics are better if they are trustworthy. A public survey conducted in 2005 showed that only 17 per cent (1 person in 6) believed that UK official statistics were produced without political interference and 60 per cent (3 persons in 5) thought that the government used official statistics dishonestly very disappointing results. These revelations led to the passing of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 as a solution to the extent of mistrust. The Act in turn led to the establishment of the United Kingdom Statistics Authority on the 1st April 2008. The UK Statistics Authority is an independent body operating at arms length from Government as a non-ministerial department, directly accountable to Parliament. The authoritys objective is to promote and safeguard the quality and comprehensiveness of official statistics that serve the public good. Its executive office is the Office for National Statistics (ONS). To fulfil its objective, the UK Statistics Authority has created a Code of Practice for all official UK statistics. This code has established common standards in the production and publication of statistics and has therefore helped to ensure a coherent and trustworthy service to the user of statistics. Statistics deemed of a sufficiently high quality carry the National Statistics label, which assures users that the statistics have been produced using sound methods, are free of government interference and so, most importantly, can be trusted! Statistics have and always will be scrutinised. However, it is important to realise how useful they can be, especially in todays fast paced world where making informed decisions are essential to the survival and improvement of our living standards. Credit should be given to the way in which the science of statistics has developed over time to produce the large volume of data we have at our disposal today, and also the efforts that have been made to make sure that this data is reliable.