Anger at spin on crime data; Corrosive of public trust, says watchdog.Byline: Jack Doyle For the baseball player, see Jack Doyle (baseball player) Jack Doyle (August 31 1913 in Cobh, Ireland - December 13 1978 in Paddington, London), known as "The Gorgeous Gael" was at one time or another contender British Boxing Championship, Hollywood actor and an THE Government was severely rebuked by the statistics watchdog yesterday over its use of knife crime figures. Sir Michael Scholar Sir Michael Charles Scholar KCB is President of St John's College, Oxford. Michael was born on 3 January 1942. He was educated at St Olave's Grammar School, St John's College, Cambridge (BA Classics and Moral Sciences 1964, MA, PhD, Research Fellow, Honorary Fellow 1999). , head of the UK Statistics Authority, said Thursday's release of stabbing data by 10 Downing Street Downing Street, Westminster, London, England. On the street are the British Foreign Office and, at No. 10, the residence of the first lord of the Treasury, who is usually (although not necessarily) the prime minister of Great Britain. and the Home Office was "premature, irregular and selective". In a letter to Jeremy Heywood, permanent secretary at Number 10, he said figures on hospital admissions for stabbings had not been properly checked and putting them out early was "corrosive of public trust". The figures seemed to show 27% fewer teenagers admitted to hospital for stab injuries in knife crime hotspots. The Home Office said serious knife crimes against young people were down 17% between last June and October in the 10 areas targeted by the Tackling Knives Action Programme. But officials refused to break down the figures by region, leading to questions on how they had been calculated. Sir Michael said he had been told officials or advisers in Number 10 had "caused" the Home Office to issue the release. He said: "These statistics were not due for publication for some time, and had not therefore been through the regular process of checking. "The statisticians Statisticians or people who made notable contributions to the theories of statistics, or related aspects of probability, or machine learning: A to E
"I hope you will agree that the publication of prematurely released and unchecked statistics is corrosive of public trust in official statistics, and incompatible with the high standards which we are all seeking to establish." Downing Street and the Home Office defended the decision to publish the figures ahead of their official release date in March. But Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve (born May 24, 1956) British politician and barrister. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Beaconsfield and is the shadow Attorney General and one of the shadow Home Affairs spokesmen. said: "The knife crime epidemic is a tragedy that has claimed too many young lives. If Government ministers have sanctioned the selective and manipulative spinning of these statistics, it is reckless and irresponsible." Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "If ministers want the British people to trust anything they say, statistics must be made completely independent of government." |
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