Office of the Chief Statistician
Written 27 posts
ScotCen appointed to review Pre-release Access to Official Statistics in Scotland
18th February 2025
The Office of the Chief Statistician has appointed The Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) to independently review current processes around pre-release access to Official Statistics in Scotland. Pre-release access is the practice of providing access to official statistics in their final form prior to publication. Pre-release access is restricted to a limited number of…
Updates to Data Zones and Intermediate Zones now published
16th December 2024
The Scottish Government has today published updated versions of Data Zones and Intermediate Zones. Data Zones and Intermediate Zones have been updated to reflect changes to population and other geographical boundaries since they were last revised in 2014 following the 2011 Census. In particular, the proposed changes have been produced to align with new population…
Changing the International Territorial Levels (ITLs) for Scotland – Consultation Analysis now published
11th December 2024
The Scottish Government has published its analysis of responses to the recent consultation on Changing the International Territorial Level geography for Scotland. The Office for National Statistics are currently reviewing existing ITL boundaries for the UK. The report contains the Scottish Government’s recommendation to the Office for National Statistics for how the ITL boundaries for…
Our plans to update the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
20th November 2024
By The SIMD team The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is a tool for identifying the places in Scotland where people are experiencing disadvantage across different aspects of their lives. It is the Scottish Government’s standard approach to identifying areas of multiple deprivation in Scotland, and is widely used to identify opportunities to improve…
Statement from the Chief Statistician on the Annual Population Survey
14th November 2024
Challenges in Gathering Scotland’s Data: How Response Rates Are Impacting the Annual Population Survey In recent years we have seen difficulties in getting people to respond to surveys and other data collections. These problems are affecting most surveys across the UK. In this blog I will describe the problems with the Annual Population Survey and…
Working with producers of statistics
19th September 2024
This is the second of two blogs published by the Office of the Chief Statistician in Scottish Government in response to recommendations of the Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority by Professor Denise Lievesley. Through the blogs we touch on the purpose of Government statistics which are fundamental to open and transparent government and…
Serving the needs of users of statistics
12th September 2024
This is the first of two blogs published by the Office of the Chief Statistician in Scottish Government in response to recommendations of the Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority by Professor Denise Lievesley. Through the blogs we touch on the purpose of Government statistics which are fundamental to open and transparent government and…
Tell us what you think: review of the Scottish Care Experience Survey Programme
12th March 2024
We are reviewing the Scottish Care Experience Survey Programme. The programme includes a suite of national surveys which provide local and national information on the quality of health and care services from the perspectives of the people using them. The programme currently consists of four surveys: The Health & Care Experience Survey (HACE) covers GP…
Working as a government statistician – Emma Sigfridsson
8th November 2023
By Emma Sigfridsson, Senior Assistant Statistician in Homelessness Statistics and Analysis The Scottish Government has launched an external recruitment campaign for B1 and B2 Assistant Statisticians. Applications close on 13 November 2023. You might be wondering what statisticians do on a day-to-day basis. This blog series offers some insight into the diversity of roles available…
Working as a government statistician – Ross Waddell
2nd November 2023
By Ross Waddell, Assistant Statistician in Education Analytical Services The Scottish Government has launched an external recruitment campaign for B1 and B2 Assistant Statisticians. Applications close on 13 November 2023. An information session to find out more about the application and assessment process will be held on Monday 6 November 2023 from 12:30 to 14:00. You might be wondering what statisticians…