Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Deferred
Paragraph: 81
Building trust between leaders and the public is essential to the response.
Conclusion
Building trust between leaders and the public is essential to the response. The evidence the Committee has received, including from behavioural scientists, shows that people respond to open and honest information that is clear about the uncertainties within it. Some data has been communicated with the apparent intention of creating a more favourable view of the Government and some data has appeared to have been used to provoke anxiety rather than help people understand risk. It is disappointing to hear that the way data has been presented might have undermined public trust.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government states that a statutory public inquiry will be established in spring 2022 to look back at all aspects of COVID-19, including data transparency, and that lessons are continually being learned.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
81
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The Government agrees that statistics should be used in a way that builds confidence and upholds the three pillars of the Code of Practice - trustworthiness, quality and value. Ministers and their departments are subject to the Code of Practice in respect of National Statistics, as required by the Statistics and Registration Act 2007. The Ministerial Code states that Ministers should be mindful of the good practice in relation to all official statistics, including those not covered by the statutory requirements of the legislation. As such, the Government does not agree that a change is necessary to the Ministerial Code. The UKSA Code of Practice is a standard tool used in statistics and the Government strives to adhere to this. The Government is committed to communicating the latest COVID-19 guidance as clearly and simply as possible via our national public information campaign, publications on GOV.UK, press conferences, televised addresses from the Prime Minister, Chief Medical Officer and Government Chief Scientific Adviser, and through the national news media. The data unpinning the slides presented at COVID-19 press conferences is made available to the public via publication on GOV.UK, including reference to source information and statistical notes.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗