The data from the COINS database sent to the ONS from HM Treasury
Dear Office for National Statistics,
I would like to request a copy of the latest data from the COINS database sent to the Office of National Statistics from HM Treasury.
Yours faithfully,
Lisa Evans
FOI Team
Please could you advise and respond to the following email.
Many thanks
Lauren Brown
Customer Advisor| Cynghorydd Cwsmeriaid
Customer Intelligence | Cudd-wybodaeth Cwsmeriaid
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Dear Office for National Statistics,
I would like to request a copy of the latest data from the COINS
database sent to the Office of National Statistics from HM
Treasury.
Yours faithfully,
Lisa Evans
Our Reference: FOI00940/Evans/QE1
Thank you for your email. I am writing to confirm that the Office for
National Statistics has now completed its search for the information which
you requested and a copy of the information is attached.
(See attached file: FOI00940Evans.pdf)
You have the right to have this response to your freedom of information
request reviewed internally by an internal review process and, if you
remain unhappy with the decision, by the Information Commissioner. If you
would like to have the decision reviewed please write to Frank Nolan,
Office for National Statistics, Room 1127, Government Buildings, Cardiff
Road, Newport, Gwent, NP10 8XG.
If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
Regards,
Paul Wearn
Legal Services
Office for National Statistics
For the latest data on the economy and society consult National Statistics at http://www.ons.gov.uk
Legal Disclaimer : Any views expressed by the sender of this message are not necessarily those of the Office for National Statistics
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Dear Paul Wearn,
Thank you for your reply.
I have worked with the members of HM Treasury team who are responsible for COINS and have a good understanding of the processes involved in COINS data entry. I know that the data is entered by departments as described here:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pesp_cra.htm
in particular in Annex B - Best practise for the CRA data collection
What interests me in your reply is the statement:
"The data in the extract are in-year monitoring data and, as such, have not been audited."
Could I clarify that the reason you rejected my request for the Excel spreadsheet from COINS is because the data you receive is not audited?
If so, is the COINS data the ONS receives audited or checked before it is used in the ONS reports?
Finally, if the audited or checking does take place, could you advice how the audited COINS data is stored before it is used in the ONS reports?
Yours sincerely,
Lisa Evans
David Jones left an annotation ()
They have not responded to your request for clarification. Perhaps you should prod them?
I know COINS has been published, but it still would be useful to see what "snapshot" the ONS get sent. They say it contains 800,000 records, which is considerably fewer than the 23 million or so that a year's worth of COINS contains, so someone is doing some summarisation.
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Ganesh Sittampalam left an annotation ()
Are you planning on appealing this? The exemption looks rather dubious and they haven't really explained it or done a public interest test.