Written question asked by Steve Barclay (Conservative) on Thursday, 2 December 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 7 December 2010. It was answered by Lord Herbert of South Downs (Conservative) on Monday, 13 December 2010 on behalf of the Home Office.

Departmental Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of arrangements for data collection in (a) her Department and (b) the non-departmental public bodies for which she is responsible.

Answer: [holding answer 7 December 2010]: The Code of Practice for Official Statistics, implementing the Statistics and Registration Act 2007, covers official statistics published by the Department and its non-departmental public bodies. The Home Office's 'Statement of compliance with Code of Practice for Official Statistics' is published on the Department's website at:"http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/ho-compliance-state-10.pdf"and states:"““The Home Office is committed to regularly reviewing its National Statistics outputs. Our data collection, analysis and dissemination methods will continue to be reviewed regularly to identify ongoing opportunities for improvement.""In collecting, processing & publishing our statistics, we will endeavour to place the minimum burdens necessary on data providers. We consider the costs to data suppliers in developing new data requirements and review regularly the existing data requirements to ensure that they continue to be relevant.””"The Department's Information Strategy was recently published within the draft Transparency section of the Department's Business Plan 2011-2015:"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/corporate-publications/business-plan-2011-15/business-plan?view=Binary"

Secondary information