From :

To :
CC :
Nicola.Edge , Roger.Halliday ,
, Sandy Stewart/NEWPORT/ONS
Date Sent : 17/04/2014 11:38:35
Subject : RE: Assessment - Recorded Crime statistics

Thanks for your email.

Could you confirm that I have understood the email below correctly. The UKSA is stating that
there is no scope to (i) phase the assessment activity over a longer time period, and/or (ii)
prioritise particular elements (risks) for a first phase of assessment activity to take account of this
particular resources intensive period for the Scottish Government, thus balance the needs for, and
use of Scottish Government resources between, the achievement of a timely “Recorded Crime in
Scotland 2013-14” publication and the re-assessment activity.

I do apologise that the above statement is rather stark, however I think it is important that we are
both crystal clear about this issue. As we have consistently said, we would prefer to discuss how
to balance the needs of a timely publication and the needs of the re-assessment activity (we
thought that through a specification for the work would be a useful way to do this). Our
preference is most definitely to have a phased or transparently prioritised procedure, that limits
the call on our time prior to the June publication. I am sorry, but it is not feasible for us to
accomplish (to the high standard we hold ourselves to) and immensely stressful for us to have the
pressures of; (i) a new format for the publication in June of “Recorded Crime In Scotland 2013-
14” taking account of police reform; (ii) the regular quality assurance work conducted on
recorded crime data submitted by the police to Scottish Government for “Recorded Crime in
Scotland”; (iii) an expansive technical exercise to investigate Police Scotland methods to collate
recorded crime data at a national level; and (iii) re-assessment activity. As you will know, we
have already brought the “Recorded Crime in Scotland” publication forward to June in response
to a previous UKSA request – which limits the time available from the end of the financial year
to conduct a lot of very complicated work.

As I said in my previous email, the timing for our publication is under serious jeopardy. It would
be very helpful for us to work together to prioritise the publication date.
Yours,

From:
Sent: 17 April 2014 10:43
To:
Cc: ; Edge N (Nicola); Halliday R (Roger);
; Sandy Stewart
Subject: Re: Assessment - Recorded Crime statistics

Thank you for arranging the conference call facility. At the delayed kick-off meeting on 20
March we specified that the re-assessment is appraising compliance with the Code of Practice.
Our process continues to be as we explained to you at that time, that we are gathering evidence
and analysing compliance with the Code.

We have previously sent you the link to the documents on our website which contain guidance
about Assessment, I paste the link again
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/assessment/guidance-about-
assessment/index.html. I would also again encourage you to speak with the Office of the Chief
Statistician in the Scottish Government, I understand that they provide useful guidance to
statistical teams who are completing Assessments.

Looking forward to seeing you and the team later today,

From:
To:
Cc: , Nicola.Edge ,
Roger.Halliday , ,
Date: 16/04/2014 19:23
Subject: RE: Assessment - Recorded Crime statistics

Thanks for your reply ,

It would be very helpful to have a discussion on the key areas for us to focus our limited
resources and time during this resource intensive period. It would still be very helpful to have a
specification for this re-assessment work, to help us transparently understand the process being
followed and the key risks that have been identified by the UKSA for this publication. We could
then help to identify the key areas where it would be most useful to focus our limited available
resources.

We are now only 8 weeks from our proposed publication date, and we have a significant amount
of detailed work to accomplish and complicated decisions to make in this time. In the next 2
weeks, we have to make a range of key decisions. As you know, police reform has made
publication of this year’s report more resource intensive than normal (as we have to redesign the
report and are also engaged in a wide-ranging and detailed exercise to assess the new SCOMIS
collation system). It is urgent that we fully concentrate on completing these very detailed and
complicated tasks, if we do not then there is a real risk to the final report.

The timing of the report is now in serious jeopardy, and is a cause of some concern. It would be
very helpful to discuss how best to balance the needs of the re-assessment process and the needs
of the final publication. We, of course, want to be as helpful as possible, however this is a very
challenging and resource intensive time at the moment. So it would be good to focus on what is
feasible.

See you tomorrow. We have also got a conference call facility in place for – so she doesn’t
have to travel.

Yours,

Head of Safer Communities Analysis

From:
Sent: 15 April 2014 18:24
To:
Cc: ; Edge N (Nicola); Halliday R (Roger);

Subject: Re: Assessment - Recorded Crime statistics

Hi ,

Thanks for your mail, 3.30pm on Thursday at VQ suits myself and . Is there any chance
that you can get a conference call facility so that can join in the discussion?

Just to build slightly on the points you outline below to cover:

• the roles and responsibilities of the Scottish Government, Police Scotland (including the
Crime Registrars and associated groups) and the SPA in the production of the recorded crime
statistics
• the QA work you outline, including how you have determined the appropriate level of QA
for these data
• the separate 'SCOMIS' data exercise, including clarity around the purpose and content of the
related 'Technical Report'.

In addition it would be useful to discuss your response to our initial set of questions that you sent
through, we need a bit more detail on some points. It would also be useful to discuss the
remainder of the outstanding questions, especially if you could tell us any questions that are
proving difficult or time consuming to answer and we can consider if there are ways of making
them clearer for you.

Finally, following the QA point above, today sent a document to all HoPs which I
think you will find useful when considering your QA processes in relation to compliance with
the Code of Practice. I think Roger Halliday is so I've attached the document
in order that you have sight of it. Happy to discuss this when we meet.

Best wishes,
.

| Monitoring & Assessment Team | UK Statistics Authority |

Now you can follow us on Twitter! : www.twitter.com/UKStatsAuth

Date: 14/04/2014 15:38

Hi ,

How about 3.30pm on Thursday here in VQ?

Having now had a chance to consider your questions, it would appear that it would be useful for
us to cover:
· The Crime Registrars, and the Scottish Crime Registrars Group;
· The quality assurance work to be conducted on data submitted by Police Scotland, and,
· The separate exercise looking at the “SCOMIS” data collation system.

It would also be useful to get a sense of the overall specification for the re-assessment, where
you are in the re-assessment and where we should prioritise our limited resources.

Yours,

Head of Safer Communities Analysis

From:
Sent: 11 April 2014 16:48
To:
Cc: Ed Humpherson; ; Edge N (Nicola); Halliday R (Roger);
Sandy Stewart;
Subject: Re: Assessment - Recorded Crime statistics

Hi ,

Thanks for sending that information over. That's really useful.

We are free to catch up next Thursday. We're happy to come down to VQ or we can do it via
phone if you prefer.

Thanks,

| Monitoring & Assessment Team | UK Statistics Authority |

Now you can follow us on Twitter! : @UKStatsAuth

From:
To:
Cc: Ed Humpherson/LONDON/ONS@ONS, Roger.Halliday ,
, Sandy Stewart/NEWPORT/ONS@ONS,

Nicola.Edge ,
Date: 11/04/2014 16:10
Subject: RE: Assessment - Recorded Crime statistics

Hi ,

Please find attached, a first batch of answers to your question list and stakeholder contact details.
We are still working on: (i) the responses to the remainder of the questions, and (ii) amendments
to the note. Please do let us know if this is the correct level of information that you find helpful.

It would also still be really helpful to have a specification for the re-assessment. This will be
really helpful in allowing us to target our limited resources onto your key evidential needs. As
you know, this is a very resource intensive time for us, so any help in focussing our efforts
would be appreciated.

It may also be worth have a chat next week to assess progress, how about Thursday?

Yours

Head of Safer Communities Analysis

From:
Sent: 04 April 2014 15:53
To:
Cc: Ed Humpherson; Halliday R (Roger); ; Sandy Stewart;
Subject: Assessment - Recorded Crime statistics

Following Ed and Roger's conversation today about the recorded crime in Scotland assessment, I
understand we will all be meeting in a few weeks.

We just discussed with Ed. In order to keep momentum in advance of that meeting, we would
like you to take another look at the list of questions that we sent to you, and provide answers to
those questions that you can answer now. I've attached the document again for your reference.
As I said in my previous email we are happy to take answers in whatever way you find easiest,
be that in a meeting, by you sending us links to published documents or sending us copies of
locally held documents. Many of the questions require a simple yes/no or a link to documents,
and we really need you to offer your answers to those.

There are a small number that you may prefer to discuss and I am happy to meet or discuss them
over the phone, especially to identify whether any would be too onerous to expect a response
over the next fortnight. If any are unclear please do let me know as soon as possible as it would
be good to have your response early next week.

I would also be grateful if you could send over the contact details (name and email address is
fine) for your key stakeholders as agreed when we met.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

| Monitoring & Assessment Team | UK Statistics Authority |

Now you can follow us on Twitter! : www.twitter.com/UKStatsAuth

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