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Article: A vision of the future - in the official figures
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- February 28, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Tim Holt, head of the Government's statistical service since
July, has inherited an unfinished agenda. It is an ambitious one:
to rebuild public confidence in official statistics.
According to his predecessor, the ebullient Australian Bill
Maclennan, the credibility of official statistics has been
seriously undermined by the public perception that the unemployment
figures were distorted by political pressures. Dozens of changes in
the rules for claiming unemployment benefit have steadily pushed
the total downwards.
Mr Maclennan insisted, before he quit the job to return to
Australia, that the UK must switch to an internationally-accepted
measure of unemployment - based on a monthly survey. ...