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The head of the Royal Statistical Society, Stian Westlake, talks algorithms, politicians and the current ‘favourable wind’ gathering in government behind his profession.
Ethics written on scrabble tiles
Photo: Nick Youngson/Alpha Stock Images/CC BY-SA 3.0
Stian Westlake is more surprised by one of this reporter’s questions than one might expect the chief executive of the Royal Statistical Society to be. It is, of course: what is his favourite official statistic?
But after some thought, he provides an answer – prefaced with the apologetic caveat that it is “very geeky”.
“The ONS used to publish an information sheet showing the ratio of house prices to the new-build cost of housing. What it shows is – unsurprisingly for anyone who's immersed in the UK property market – it costs an awful lot more to buy a house than to build a house,” he says. “The reason why that's so interesting is because it's the smoking gun for the fact that we have a real problem with the supply of housing and planning in the UK. I think it’s one of the small statistics that sums up a very big debate and points to something that really matters to people.”
Westlake took up the role at the head of the RSS, an industry body representing statisticians and data analysts, in July of this year. He says he has long had a fascination with “the world of data and the use of statistics to make the world a better place”.
He has spent the last decade at the innovation think tank Nesta, after stints at McKinsey and social investment firm The Young Foundation...
The RSS even put forward statisticians to help navigate what it acknowledged would be a tremendously challenging process – but was told they would need to sign a non-disclosure agreement to do so. The society objected, saying it would prevent independent experts from commenting on any discussions that Ofqual did not choose to make public itself for five years.
Source: PublicTechnology
