World Statistics Day Seminar
The 20th October 2010 marks the first worldwide celebration of the role and achievements of official statistics at both national and international level. Launched by the UN General Assembly, the aims of World Statistics Day are to acknowledge the work of global statistical bodies and systems and to work towards strengthening trust in and awareness of public official statistics. The Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, has made a plea to world leaders to "Let us make this historic World Statistics Day a success by acknowledging and celebrating the role of statistics in the social and economic development of our societies and by dedicating further efforts and resources to strengthening national statistical capacity."
In order to celebrate the role of official statistics in Scotland, the local Edinburgh branch of the Applied Quantitative Methods Network has organised this seminar to bring together two leading figures involved in upholding quality and integrity of statistical outputs. Rob Wishart is Chief Statistician in Scottish Government, a role he has held since 1999. Rob has overall responsibility for developing the relevance, quality and integrity of official statistics and their contribution to meeting government and external stakeholders' needs. Neil Jackson is leader of the Monitoring and Assessment team for the UK Statistics Authority in Scotland, which was established in 2008. The role of this independent body is to scrutinise the quality and comprehensiveness of statistical products and publications to ensure they meet the high standards set out in the Code of Practice.
World Statistics Day comes at a time when public statistics are under heavy examination and the future existence of major statistical instruments, such as the UK Census and national social surveys, are under question. This seminar will consider the development of official statistics in Scotland, past, present and future, and explore the ways in which official statistics are used by the outside world, the importance of consultation with users and the role of independent bodies in overseeing standards in Scottish statistical publications.
The event will take place in Meeting Room 1.07, University of Edinburgh Main Library, George Square.
Places for the event are limited so please sign up below if you wish to attend.
