Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has asked the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to suspend the accredited official statistics status of the Sea Fisheries Statistics, including both the annual and associated monthly publications.
The temporary action, which has been approved, follows MMO’s investigation into the fisheries landing data it manages for England and reports on behalf of the UK Fisheries Authorities as part of the UK Sea Fisheries Statistics after discrepancies were discovered in the dataset earlier this year.
MMO’s Chief Statistician Rebekah Paul explained “The Code of Practice for Official Statistics sets out the standards to which Official Statistics should be produced and published. It is focussed around three pillars of trustworthiness, value and quality, and covers all aspects of statistical production, including data collection, processing, and dissemination.
“Our investigation into discrepancies with the fisheries landing data earlier this year provided an opportunity to review our statistical production process from end-to-end, and further areas of improvement were identified.
“These areas of improvement are not necessarily to do with the quality of data published within these releases, but in relation to the presentation and documentation that accompanies these statistical series. We have therefore asked the OSR to suspend the accredited status while we develop and roll out an official statistics development programme with the aim of re-accrediting the UK Sea Fisheries Statistics as soon as we’re able.”
MMO is committed to the continuous improvement of our statistical products and hold ourselves to the highest standards. We will continue making the Sea Fisheries Statistics data available, with additional guidance for users about how to make best use of these data – the 2023 annual UK Sea Fisheries Statistics will be published on 5 December, though this will not include the results of the Fisherman’s Survey. These statistics remain the best available data and are still considered a reliable measure of industry activity at an overall (UK) level.
MMO has also identified areas for future development and improvement of all aspects of these statistics and will implement these revisions in the coming months under its Official Statistics Development programme. We will continue to offer full transparency and will clearly communicate any changes to customers and stakeholders ahead of implementation where possible.
You can find more details concerning this suspension in the statistical notice published on Gov.uk. You can also find a copy of the correspondence with the Office for Statistics Regulation here.
