Matheson told the Public Administration Select Committee that “there are administrative data in some departments that would be fantastic for statistical purposes” – providing useful information for other departments or the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – but that it can be “extremely difficult” to get access to that data.
She gave an example of corporation tax data held by HMRC, which would be useful to the ONS in its work producing national accounts and other economic data.
Sean Whellams, head of the statistics profession in HMRC, also at the PASC hearing, said that primary legislation would be needed to enable his department to share this information with other parties.