[wdmmg-discuss] Questions about the Blue Book

Mon Mar 15 02:24:49 UTC 2010

A quick update on this meeting.

Two outcomes from that we can use straight away are:

1. For our questionnaire on individuals net gain or loss, the ONS have the 
similar 'personal inflation calculator':

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=14762&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=272
and
and http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pic/

"The Personal Inflation Calculator is a web-based tool that allows users 
to calculate an inflation rate based on their personal expenditure 
patterns, rather than the averages used in published statistics. It does 
this by weighting together price indices from the RPI to arrive at a 
personal inflation rate."

2. The 'concepts, sources and methods'
(http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1144&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=208)
is useful and details description of central government accounts.
This is the latest review of the ONS methods -- it is from 1998!

In other good news -- my request for all the Program Object Aliases and 
corresponding Program Object Groups have been successful.
If this all works out (I haven't actually got it through the post yet) 
it means we now have more detail about spending than is in the CRA.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/programme_objects_from_the_coins#incoming-75100

Lisa

On Tue, 9 Mar 2010, Rufus Pollock wrote:

> Just to be clear my item 1 was *not* a request for the *underlying*
> data but for the blue book in excel/csv/... form (i.e. not pdf).
>
> On item 2 it looks like we will have to be cleverer about this :)
>
> Also second all of Alistair's points ...
>
> Rufus
>
> On 9 March 2010 20:57, Lisa Evans <lisa.evans at okfn.org> wrote:
>> Good questions Rufus. I asked similar ones in these FOI requests:
>>
>> Request for data that is used to produce the aggregates presented in the
>> Blue Book 2009
>> http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/data_that_is_used_to_produce_the#incoming-71299
>>
>> Data used to calculate the Gross National Income (GNI)
>> http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/data_used_to_calculate_the_gross
>>
>> Process, software, procedures that are used to prepare the Blue Book
>> http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/process_software_procedures_that#incoming-71300
>>
>> All of which were rejected on account of being too much information to send
>> in an email.
>>
>> So I'm hoping meeting them in person will be more useful,
>>
>> Lisa
>>
>> On Tue, 9 Mar 2010, Rufus Pollock wrote:
>>
>>> 1. Can we get the blue book in source (eg xls, cab ...) form
>>>
>>> 2. Where do they get the data?
>>>
>>> Rufus
>>>
>>> On Mar 9, 2010 3:32 PM, "Lisa Evans" <lisa.evans at okfn.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> I have the opportunity to meet with some people who are responsible for
>>> The
>>> Office of National Statistics (ONS) Blue Book.
>>>
>>> The Blue Book shows national income and spending aggregated in many
>>> different ways. The ONS devote lots of manpower and resource to do the
>>> gathering of the same data we need for WDMMG.
>>>
>>> Are there any questions you would like me to ask them?
>>>
>>> Lisa
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> wdmmg-discuss mailing list
>>> wdmmg-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wdmmg-discuss
>>>
>>
>