Four teams from the Department for Work and Pensions have won an award recognising good practice in official statistics for their “ambitious” project to improve stats on poverty and incomes.
The Family Resources Survey Team, Family Resources Survey Transformation Team, Households Below Average Income Team and Pensioners’ Incomes Team took home the Royal Statistical Society’s Campion Award for Excellence in Official Statistics at a ceremony on Wednesday night.
The award, presented in partnership with the Statistics Authority and Civil Service World, recognises outstanding innovations and overcoming of challenges faced by government statisticians to improve the quality of evidence used by government and wider society.
The winning project, entitled integration of administrative data into the Family Resources Survey and related outputs, uses administrative data to help resolve a “significant gap” in the Family Resources Survey, which reports on household incomes and living circumstances in the UK.
The teams have used innovative statistical methods to address benefit under‑reporting in income statistics, thus improving official statistics on poverty and incomes.
The work “is an important contribution that will strengthen the evidence base used by policymakers across government, as well as by researchers and academics, to inform analysis and public debate”, according to the RSS.
Two other projects came highly commended for the award: the Refugee Integration Outcomes Longitudinal Data Linkage Project, run by Kevin McCafferty and Caroline Peate at the Office for National Statistics and Home Office; and the publication of first input-output tables for Wales by the Welsh Government’s Input-Output Table Team.
The first project has provided “unique evidence” on the economic, housing, and language outcomes for refugees in England and Wales for the first time by linking refugee data with administrative data from across government. The anonymised analytical dataset enables longitudinal tracking of outcomes for a “typically hard-to-study population”, the RSS said.
The second used input-output tables – which illustrate direct and indirect interactions between sectors of the economy by describing the flows of products between and within industries – to provide a detailed picture of the Welsh economy, enabling better analysis of economic interventions.
The project used “innovative methods” and diverse data sources to map 55 industries – thus overcoming challenges with UK-centric systems, the RSS said. The data has “already influenced analysis by the Welsh Government and represent a major advance in Wales’s economic data infrastructure and evidence-informed policymaking”, it added.
Penny Young, deputy chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said each of the three projects “reflect the power of taking innovative approaches to addressing old problems”.
“They all demonstrate the value of closing data gaps and pushing the boundaries of what official statistics can tell us,” she said.
“In the face of challenging circumstances, it is essential that we celebrate the success and dedication shown by those working throughout the statistical system. I therefore congratulate the winners and commended entries, who exemplify the best values of our civil servants and true excellence in their work.”
Cardiff team takes trustworthiness, quality and value award
Also presented at Wednesday night’s award ceremony was the RSS’s Statistical Excellence Award for Trustworthiness, Quality and Value, which went to the Violence Research Group at Cardiff University for their work on the National Violence Surveillance Network and linked Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention.
Presented in partnership with CSW and the Office for Statistics Regulation, the accolade recognises excellence in the voluntary application of the principles of trustworthiness, quality and value set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
The NVSN is a “pioneering public health surveillance system” that, along with the Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention, has “transformed how serious violence is measured and prevented across England and Wales”, the RSS said.
The network was set up in 2000 to address a significant evidence gap in police recording by using A&E data to inform violence prevention and drive change. The triangulated measurement approach has “reduced the longstanding reliance of policymakers, researchers and the public on incomplete data”, according to the society.
Findings from the Violence Research Group’s work have been incorporated into annual Office for National Statistics crime stats and have informed government policy by including decisions such as increasing alcohol duty in line with inflation.
The data also underpins the Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention, which has been widely implemented in England and Wales and internationally, as well as influencing work at the World Health Organization and the US Centres for Disease Control.
Dr Sarah Cumbers, chief executive of the Royal Statistical Society, said the project “powerfully demonstrates how the principles of trustworthiness, quality and value can be brought to life for the benefit of society”.
Prof Jonathan Shepherd, project lead from Cardiff University’s Violence Research Group, said he and his colleagues were “delighted” to win the award.
“This work has provided a more accurate and reassuring public picture of violence trends as the police don't know about 75% of violent offences which result in emergency hospital treatment. NVSN data and crime survey data show that violence has decreased by 60% since 2000,” he said.
“The network’s annual reports always get high profile interest, yet these operations are sustained without external funding, reflecting our enduring commitment to serving the public good.”