Remember the statistics released by the Home Office yesterday – and reported in the newspapers today – which highlighted positive devlepments in the war on knife crime? Well, you can officially disregard those statistics. The Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Michael Scholar, has issued an angry letter saying that the numbers weren’t ready for public consumption and blaming Number Ten for getting them released prematurely. The Standard’s Paul Waugh has the complete text of Scholar’s letter, but here’s the main thrust of it:
“It has been reported to me by the National Statistician’s Office that officials or advisers in No. 10 Downing Street caused the Home Office to issue a Press Release which prematurely published provisional statistics for hospital admissions for knife or sharp instrument wounding. This Press Release said that ‘the number of teenagers admitted to hospital for knife or sharp instrument wounding in nine…police force areas fell by 27 per cent according to new figures published today.’
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