Stop devolved nations collecting their own data on public services says Conservative editor
A Conservative editor has urged the UK Government to stop the devolved nations from collecting their own data on public services that could diverge from the data collected by the UK Government.
The deputy editor of news website ConservativeHome, Henry Hill, wrote in the Telegraph that the Welsh and Scottish governments were collecting their own data as a means of hiding their “incompetence”.
It meant that it was harder to compare how they were performing with England and made it tougher for the UK Government to control devolved policy, he said.
“One of the big problems which has arisen from devolution is so-called ‘data divergence’, where the devocrats tweak how statistics are collected (or simply stop collecting them) in order to prevent a like-for-like comparison of their records with those in other parts of the UK,” Henry Hill said.
“If an MP writes to the House of Commons Library to ask for a comparative report on English and Welsh school performance, or NHS outcomes in different parts of Britain, they ought to be prepared to receive an apologetic note to the effect that such a comparison can’t be done.
He added that this “undermining Britain’s statistical base (and with it the possibility of British, as opposed to devolved, policy)”.
‘Ultimate responsibility’
He pointed to the SNP’s independent Scottish census as an example of this, and while there was no Welsh equivalent predicted that “doubtless Mark Drakeford will soon be making the case that this is a historic injustice”.
The General Register Office for Scotland has been responsible for the census in Scotland since 1855. Henry Hill however said that it was time for the UK Government to take back control of all data collection.
“The Government is starting to recognise that data divergence is a serious problem,” he said. “Unionist MPs are already pushing ministers to mandate the nationwide collection of uniform data on public service performance.
“But the planned Data Reform Bill is an opportunity to go further. Westminster bears ultimate responsibility for good governance in every corner of this country. Boris Johnson should be bold: it’s time to take back control of the Census.”
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ass bitch
Worry about the excrement on your own doorstep you little cuck.
are these people for real?
little by little the devolution “settlement” is eroded
Every sneering act by every petty minded vindictive shyster just adds to the pile of cord-wood we will burn them on when we light the beacons to celebrate our independence.
Every day, something awful from the imperialists next door. Roll on independence!
So this is today’s daily slur against the senior nations? Every day a new attack form the One Nation Unionists.
Is this the much vaunted “muscular unionism” we have heard of? Just a litany of lawbreaking theft and insults?
I am fast coming to the conclusion that we could just walk away from the toxic union and they wouldn’t do a damn thing about it but whine and write furious letters insulting us in the Murdoch press. So let’s do it!
I’ve long thought that independence won’t be given, we will have to be taken
Unionists rarely give, but boy do they take. Time to take back what’s rightfully ours.
I’m all for independence, by whatever means, but we need to be always aware of the fact that *at least* 20percent of the population of Wales would view that with real horror. There are a lot of people living here who believe that Wales is nothing other than western England, and just as many who can;t imagine Wales could ‘manage’ outside the arms of Big Daddy, the abusive parent. We’ve got a long way to go to get anywhere near Scotland’s sense of self.
Don’t u mean that maximum 20% of the population want independence. The rest don’t. Just stating the facts
You might be right. The real point is *why* they don’t want independence. Mushroom syndrome? Cultural cringe? Defeatism? I mean, OK, you;re probably right – its incomprehensible that people in Wales still vote Tory, but there you are. To be honest I sometimes despair of Wales; if I were younger I’d have moved to Scotland or Ireland years ago. Perhaps Wales is only fit to be the Butlins for the English middle classes. (I wish I didn’t find myself thinking this far too often)
I want to add that I live – have lived most of my life – in Pembrokeshire, which is hardly the stronghold of Welsh identity. I have met – and walked away from – many people here who openly deride the idea of an independent Wales – and they’re Welsh born and bred but are only really 90-minute patriots. But when I go a bit up the road to Carmarthen and see and hear lovely young people speaking Welsh in the streets I do have some hope for the future. Not that much future left for me – I’m 70.… Read more »
I think the Tories should look at the incompetence of their own party rather than look elsewhere. The UK government is far more likely to give false accounting than the governments of Wales and Scotland, it’s in its blood. The more the Tories try to devalue the devolved powers the stronger they will get.
What part does the ONS, an independent body play in this, if they don’t make the information available why is it the devolved governments fault
More intrusive agression from our Conservative Pro-Brexiteer Unionist hypocrites. How ironic the very same who falsely accused the European Union of stealing Britain’s sovereignty & power are actually doing it to Wales & Scotland. We have that lowlife English extremist Henry Hill of ConservativeHome state that Boris Johnson’s idiocracy should stop Wales & Scotland from collecting their own data as it’s a means of hiding their “incompetence”. Okay, let me get this straight. The Welsh & Scottish Governments are collecting their own date to hide their incompetence? So the Tory party wasting £37 billion on a failed Covid app. £16… Read more »
Well that colonialist little —— can go —— himself
As with their paymaster Putin, the Tory’s are in deep trouble, and just like Putin, they deflect and accuse, and point the finger, in the case of the UK Gov, at the devolved Gov’s, and invent a narrative to cover the attacks on devolution. They will not stop until they control the devolved countries as they did 30 years ago, by using the English media rather than the military way Putin has gone.
Wait a minute, why should we be comparing ourselves to England anyway? What’s the actual point of that? Why not to any other small nation in the developed world, like Scotland, Ireland, Estonia… And as far as “,,,UK Government to control devolved policy…” goes, well, just stop now. Just stop now.
Exactly. England is always a benchmark used by ones hostile to devolution when there are nations with superior education systems and higher standard of living Wales should aspire too.