Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he plans to take to reduce the number of rebukes his Department receives from the UK Statistical Authority.

Esther McVey

Since May 2010 the DWP has led the way in openness and transparency of statistical releases by publishing over 770 releases and datasets.
Great care is taken to get things right, and in this time the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) has only written directly to DWP Ministers on two occasions about issues raised with it about DWP statistics. The Department has responded to these points and taken on board the UKSA suggestions.

DWP Statistical releases are produced and published separately to and independently from other Departmental comment or publications.
Great care is taken by DWP statisticians to ensure the Statistical releases are easy to read and understand, and are balanced and impartial.