The UK Statistics Authority wrote to Michael Marra MSP about waiting times in England and Scotland

25 March 2026 · Penny Young, Chair, UK Statistics Authority

The letter is dated 25 March 2026. A reply dated 28 April 2026 is published alongside it. The UK Statistics Authority published it as Letter from Penny Young to Michael Marra MSP – waiting times in England and Scotland; it links to 1 official record. Below are 4 passages from the letter in the regulator's own words.

What the UK Statistics Authority wrote

“We promote and safeguard the use of statistics in public debate, and investigate concerns raised with the Authority.”

“In the absence of a confirmed source for the figures referred to in the claim, we assume that these are likely to be hospital waiting times statistics published by Public Health Scotland and NHS England.”

“In this case, however, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and producers of health statistics across the UK have explained that for planned care, it is particularly challenging to produce comparable data due to differing healthcare policies, commissioning processes and patient data systems.”

“We have covered this issue in our recent election article about health statistics in Scotland as well as a public intervention where concerns were raised with us about similar claims.”

From Penny Young, Chair, UK Statistics Authority, letter of 25 March 2026. Read the full letter.

The words the letter quotes

The letter quotes 1 passage from the public record:

“We have more people in Edinburgh waiting over two years for surgery than we do in the whole of England”.”

Records the letter links to

• explained (ons.gov.uk)

Correspondence

• Published reply: Letter from Seamus Logan MP to Penny Young – waiting times in England and Scotland (28 April 2026)

More on Michael Marra.

Receipt