How Government can communicate statistics better: Full Fact's evidence to Commons inquiry

13 December 2012

Anyone who has gone hunting for the official statistics on some topic may be able to relate to this Parliamentary Question:

"To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the route is from the opening page of the Office for National Statistics website to access the time series for the Household Savings ratio for users who (a) know and (b) do not know the series registration code; if he will take steps to improve the accessibility of the information; and if he will make a statement." [112294]

This Tuesday, Full Fact's Director Will Moy - alongside Chris Giles of the FT and Michael Blastland, the creator of Radio 4's More or Less - gave evidence to the Public Administration Select Committee on the communication of official statistics.

With the new Chair of the UK Statistics Authority having announced that it would be his aim to improve the communication of official figures to the public, this was a chance for the Committee he reports to to find out how far we have to go.

You can see our thoughts from 10:22:30 in the video below, and those of the Minister responsible for official statistics before that:

A transcript will be available from the House of Commons shortly.

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