Office of the Chief Statistician

Written 27 posts

Working as a government statistician – Eleanor Swift

31st October 2023

By Eleanor Swift, Assistant Statistician in Corporate 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….

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Working Group on Sex and Gender in Data – March update

23rd March 2021

  By Roger Halliday, Chief Statistician Back in summer 2019 I was asked by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People to develop guidance to support public bodies collect and present data on sex and gender. The aim of the work isn’t simply guidance for its own sake, but to create the conditions…

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Working Group on Sex and Gender in Data – December update

10th December 2020

By Roger Halliday, Chief Statistician It has been a few months since my last update on the sex and gender in data working group, and that is down to the work being paused while I have been focussed on jointly leading the Scottish Government’s COVID-19 Modelling and Analysis team. Through this we have been providing…

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Calculation of Scotland level average private sector rents – improvements to methodology

24th November 2020

We’re making changes to the way that we calculate average rents at a Scotland level within our annual Private Sector Rent Statistics publication. Previous approach In previous publications, the Scotland level average rent figures have been calculated using an unweighted average. Average rent level figures in each area were combined into an overall Scotland figure…

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Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey

23rd October 2020

As part of Scotland’s Covid-19 testing strategy, Scotland is participating in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) COVID-19 Infection Survey. The first estimates of the percentage of people in Scotland who test positive for COVID-19 were published today, 23 October. The Scottish results are published on the gov.scot website, and on the ONS website alongside…

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New headline measure of COVID-19 test positivity rate

19th October 2020

We are changing the way we report the COVID-19 positivity rate as of 19 October 2020. The new approach addresses a limitation of the previous approach. This blog outlines why we are making this change and what its impact will be. Current approach The Scottish Government has been reporting data on the number of new…

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Counting people in hospital with COVID-19

15th September 2020

We are changing the way we count people in hospital with confirmed COVID-19 as of 15 September 2020. The new figures are lower than the previous published management information and we have a break in the time series. This blog explains why and how. Current situation Every day since mid-March, the Scottish Government has been…

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Planned changes to coronavirus data page on Scottish Government website

20th July 2020

Blog Updated on 28/07/2020 We have been publishing data every day since early April on the Scottish Government website. Given where Scotland is now in the pandemic, we think it’s a good time to refocus this publication. Some of the information developments in Scotland include: Public Health Scotland COVID-19 data – the weekly report published…

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Analysis and data around COVID-19

4th June 2020

Current analysis and data around COVID-19 Scottish Government (SG), Public Health Scotland (PHS) and National Records of Scotland (NRS) have been working together to produce a range of information to provide insight into the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect it is having in Scotland. Scottish Government publish daily coronavirus data for Scotland (updated each day…

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RESAS: Revised Schedule of Agricultural Surveys and Outputs

27th April 2020

Rural and Environmental Science and Agricultural Services (RESAS) collect a range of statistical information on the agricultural sector which is the evidence base for the majority of our analysis on agriculture. However, in light of the current guidance from the Scottish Government and the Chief Medical Officer we have had to change our planned schedule…

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