Investigation ordered into DWP’s use of statistics

The chair of the UK Statistics Authority Sir Michael Scholar has ordered an investigation into the way the Department of Work and Pensions uses statistics, following a string of concerns over the nature and presentation of stats by the department – often in secret lobby briefings, with press releases and tables not made publically available on the DWP’s website for scrutiny – despite the coalition’s commitment to ‘throw open the doors’ of public bodies.