Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021
345. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Justice her views regarding the longstanding issues related to the timeliness and accuracy of reporting of An Garda Síochána crime statistics data and the steps she has taken to improve the integrity of published crime statistics data that is provided to bodies such as the Central Statistics Office, the Policing Authority, the Oireachtas Justice Committee and other Government agencies. [35530/21]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that An Garda Síochána is working to improve data quality, specifically with regards to the PULSE system. The primary work to improve data is with An Garda Síochána, with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) undertaking reviews to see if it meets standards for national statistics.
As the Deputy may be aware, the CSO undertook a review of the quality of recorded crime statistics in 2017, which was published in December 2018, and can be found on the CSO website. This report noted the level of progress An Garda Síochána was making, which in turn led to improvements in key areas.
Such areas included a marked reduction in the non-recording of reported crime incidents on PULSE, a reduction in misclassification errors, improvements made in incidents being recorded in a more timely manner and improvements in recording of criminal incidents subsequently marked invalid. The report did also recognise that there was still some further work to do. An Garda Síochána have also undertaken work to improve the recording of data, for example around detection status.
The Deputy may wish to note that there is a further CSO review of recorded crime statistics due to be published in the near future. My Department will be in a stronger position to properly assess any further progress that has been made at that time.
In early 2018, the CSO made the decision that recorded crime statistics will be published in a new category entitled “Under Reservation”. The CSO have noted that this classification is in keeping with other jurisdictions and other statistical domains. This indicates that, while the quality does not yet meet the higher standard required of official statistics by the CSO, the statistics have been determined to be of sufficient national interest and of sufficient quality to allow publication. The decision as to when the reservation can be lifted will be taken by the Director General of the CSO in accordance with Section 13 of the Statistics Act 1993. The Director General has sole responsibility and complete independence for all statistical decisions under the Act.
I can also inform the Deputy that there is a new CSO and Department of Justice liaison group. The quality of PULSE data is one of the issues that is addressed by this group.
