The Office for Statistics Regulation wrote to Sean Whellams about Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme statistics

15 July 2020 · Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation, Office for Statistics Regulation

The letter is dated 15 July 2020. The Office for Statistics Regulation published it as Ed Humpherson to Sean Whellams: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme statistics; it links to 3 official records. Below are 4 passages from the letter in the regulator's own words.

What the Office for Statistics Regulation wrote

“We have reviewed the extent to which they have been produced in accordance with the Code of Practice’s Trustworthiness, Quality and Value pillars, while taking account of the pressures you and your teams have faced to deliver timely statistics about an important topic.”

“The estimates of take-up of the SEISS relative to the estimated number of people eligible is helpful in making comparisons, we encourage you to do something similar for the CJRS, using a suitable denominator to enable easier geographic comparisons of the impact of furlough Your decision to publish sub-regional statistics will helpfully provide further insights from the wealth of data in tables accompanying the main statistics.”

“We consider that acknowledging and explaining differences, where possible, would offer further reassurance to your users about the quality of the HMRC estimates of totals numbers eligible for SEISS support”

“As set out in our guidance on changes to statistical outputs you can include a statement to accompany information about these statistics such as “These statistics have been produced quickly in response to developing world events.”

From Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation, Office for Statistics Regulation, letter of 15 July 2020. Read the full letter.

Records the letter links to

• Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• Self-Employment Income Support Scheme
• House of Commons Treasury Select Committee

Receipt