Government consultation on reducing 'Red Tape' ie. regulation

The government is undertaking a consultation aimed at reducing ‘red tape’. The consultation asks ‘which regulations are working and which are not; what should be scrapped, what should be saved and what should be simplified’.

Areas under consultation include Pensions, Employment, Equality, as well as Environment, Health and Safety and industry specific regulations.

Questions include:
Should the Equality Act 2010 be scrapped altogether?

Should the 50 regulations that relate to pension protection be merged with existing regulations?

How can employment laws be improved?

For more information and to leave your comments please see the RED TAPE CHALLENGE website http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/home/index/ or search for ‘red tape challenge’

RSS Workshop on Measuring Wellbeing

Thursday 17th March: 11.00-17.00
Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London EC1Y 8LX

The RSS is hosting a one-day workshop as part of tha national debate on measuring wellbeing.

Thanks to support from the Office for National Statistics there is no charge for attendance but places are strictly limited.

To book your place please email conference@rss.org.uk

Programme:

11:00 - 11:30 Registration
11:30 – 12:40 Session 1 – National Wellbeing Key note speakers and panel session
- Jil Matheson (National Statistician)
- Walter Radermacher (EuroStat)
- Adrian Allsop (ESRC)
12.40 – 13:00 Keynote speech: David Willetts MP
13:00 – 13:45 Lunch
13:45 – 15:00 Session 2 – Data gaps and availability
(series of short presentations followed by table discussion)
- Paul Allin (ONS)
- Andrew Rzepa (Gallup)
- David Caplan (Audit Commission)
15:00 – 15:30 Refreshments
15:30 – 16:30 Session 3 - National wellbeing measures – empowering the citizen
(series of presentations on disseminating the data to the wider audience)
- Juliet Michaelson (New Economics Foundation)
- Andrew Collinge (GLA)
- Andrew Walkingshaw (Timetric)
16:30 – 17:00 Next steps and close

What Makes You Happy? Office for National Statistics: Consultation on National Well Being Survey

Tuesday 29th March, 2.00 - 4.00pm,
SRA, 24 – 32 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HX

Booking by email to makiD@the-sra.org.uk

The purpose of this event is to gather together practicing social researchers to explore in some depth the methodological issues facing ONS

For more information http://www.the-sra.org.uk/events.htm

Consultation on Crime Statistics

The National Statistician has launched a web based invitation to comment on how crime statistics should be compiled in future. Anyone with an interest in crime statistics is invited to feed in their views, which will help shape the recommendations from the independent review of crime statistics she is currently conducting.

The Home Secretary has invited the National Statistician to conduct an independent review of crime statistics with the aim of increasing public confidence in these statistics. The Home Secretary has decided that the publication of crime statistics should be moved out of the Home Office to promote greater trust and demonstrate their independence.

The review aims to:

- consider gaps, discrepancies and discontinuities within crime statistics;

- recommend the best future location for the publication of crime statistics, and their associated data collection systems;

- and, produce an action plan for the implementation of recommendations from the UK Statistics Authority’s report Overcoming Barriers to Trust in Crime Statistics: England and Wales published in May 2010.

The open 'invitation to comment' period closes at midnight on 10 March 2011.

The review is due to report at the end of April 2011. It is then intended to run a public consultation on the recommendations from the review. If you are interested in commenting on the review please follow this link

http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/national-statistician/ns-reports--reviews-and-guidance/national-statistician-s-reviews/national-statistician-s-review-of-crime-statistics.html

RSS Event: The Retail Prices Index and the Consumer Price Index

Tuesday 25th January 2011 5pm
Royal Statistical Society, London.
12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX


The Retail Prices Index is the traditional measure of retail price inflation, and has been widely used for a range of purposes. Recently the Government has been giving more prominence to an alternative measure, the Consumer Price Index. This meeting will discuss whether the CPI is a better inflation measure than the RPI for all or some purposes. The ONS is considering how to improve the CPI and in particular how to include housing costs, which are currently excluded.

Speakers
To include Pam Davies (ONS).
Chairperson
Michael Baxter, Official Statistics Section committee.

Tea and coffee will be provided during the meeting.

Attendance is free and open to all, but pre-registration is recommended. You can register by email: meetings@rss.org.uk or by phone (020) 7638 8998. For further information contact Michael Baxter (michael_a_baxter@hotmail.com

Crime Statistics Consultation

The Ministry of Justice today launched a consultation which aims to make statistics covering the Criminal Justice System more transparent and user friendly. A copy of the consultation document and details of how to respond can be found on our website:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/statistics-cp171110.htm

The 'Consultation on improvements to Ministry of Justice statistics' seeks views on:
• the definitions of statistics - making the statistics consistent across MoJ publications and clarifying the definition of certain important measurements.
• introducing a quarterly criminal justice statistics bulletin. This would give an overview of trends in crime, out of court disposals, prosecutions, convictions and sentencing.
• moving to a single measure of re-offending. This would get rid of the six different ways re-offending is measured. This includes consolidating five separate publications on re-offending into a single publication.
These proposals represent significant improvements by:

• making a wider range of data available routinely through our statistical publications;
• presenting a coherent overview of criminal justice statistics to help understanding and ease of comparison; and
• simplifying access to information in line with the National Statistics Code of Practice.
The consultation is a response to a number of separate reports including the UK Statistics Authority Assessment of Criminal Justice Studies, the Stern Review of Rape Reporting and UK Statistics Authority's Barrier to Trust in Crime Statistics as well as our own internal review of criminal justice publications.
The closing date for responses is 18 February 2011 and responses can be submitted by email, post or by using the online survey. If you have any questions about the consultation, please contact: statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk