LONDON (MNI) – The Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir
Michael Scholar has written a scathing letter to Chancellor of the
Exchequer George Osborne after the Treasury accidentally released
April’s CPI statistics to around 400 Ministers, officials and advisers
17 hours before the official data release.
“I am writing to you about a serious lapse in the Treasury’s
handling of official statistics, in the hope that I may persuade you to
return to the position you and your colleagues took on pre-release
access to official statistics when in Opposition,” Scholar wrote.
“Why do 50 or more people need to have the CPI a day ahead of the
Opposition, Parliament, the public, and the media? There is, I believe,
no good operational reason, but successive governments want the
political advantage that such prior knowledge confers on them: that is,
time to work out their line; and therefore time to spin,” he wrote.
“This was the second time in two months that there has been a
problem with the pre-release of the CPI. Following public suggestions
that there was a leak of the April 2011 CPI during the pre-release
period, ONS undertook an enquiry into the matter,” he added.
“This enquiry found no evidence of a leak, but there can never be
positive proof that the suspicions were unfounded, so the damage to
public confidence in these most important economic statistics remained,”
he added.
Usually, around 50 people from the Treasury, the Bank of England,
Department of Business Innovation and Skills, and the Prime Minister’s
Deputy Prime Minister’s Offices see the release 24 hours before the ONS
publishes it.
The breach occurred on 16 May 2011, when an individual from HM
Treasury entered an incorrect time into an automated dissemination
system.
–London newsroom: 00 44 20 7862 7492; email: wwilkes@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$$BE$,MABDS$]
