Nigel

Coronavirus #2 – What sample size does Boris need to lift all restrictions?

April 2, 2020 By Nigel

April Fools day 2020 saw the hive mind of social media asking what the sample size should be to measure the extent of the Coronavirus in the UK. I could see that many people responding were reaching for standard methodologies which are usually are based on specifying a desired confidence interval. In doing so, they were overlooking a much more effective and relevant alternative based on the methodology of Acceptance Sampling, first developed by the US Military in World War 2.

Coronavirus #1 – Useful Data and Links

March 19, 2020 By Nigel

Updated on 4th April 2020. New and modified links are italicised.

The Coronavirus Pandemic is a worldwide challenge many of us will have not experienced before. It is natural to want to seek information on the risks and in our world today, it has never been easier to find data, analyses and opinions. Unfortunately, a lot of what you will read out there is either unhelpful or actively misleading. As an independent statistician with 30 years experience of explaining statistics to non-statisticians, my contribution to this crisis will be to try and sort the good from the bad hence this post. [Read more…] about Coronavirus #1 – Useful Data and Links

Pay Gaps #15 – Where can I find gender pay gap data for 2019?

March 10, 2020 By Nigel

Update 5/4/20 – On 24th March, the government suspended enforcement of the deadline for reporting 2019 gender pay gaps due to the coronavirus outbreak. As of now, Only 40% of employers have reported their 2019 data. Employers are still required to report 2019 data but will not be punished for being late in doing so.

The government requires all organisations employing 250 or more employees to submit gender pay gap data. All data is available to the public and can be found on the government’s gender pay gap website. I have downloaded this data and created a spreadsheet tool to present the data in a more user-friendly and visual format.

UK Weather Trends #12 – Winter 2020

March 8, 2020 By Nigel

The UK experienced its 5th wettest and warmest winter on record in 2020.

UK Weather Tracker #37 – February 2020

March 8, 2020 By Nigel

February 2020 broke a string of boring months weather-wise in the UK with the wettest February on record.

Pay Gaps #14 – Gender Pay Fingerprints are better than Gender Pay Gaps

February 19, 2020 By Nigel

Recently, a lot of people have been making incorrect claims about what a gender pay gap tells you. I have been pointing out these errors but in doing so, I am conscious I come across as a pedant or a negative voice. The problem is that the official gender pay gap measure (the difference between the median man and the median woman) is just a single number and that single number does not capture the full nuance of what is going on. I have decided it is time to introduce the Gender Pay Fingerprint to the world as an alternative and going forward, I will be encouraging people to use this instead.

UK Economy Tracker #7 – 2019 Q4

February 17, 2020 By Nigel

The mixed picture for the UK economy continued in Q3. GDP growth is now at its lowest level since the 2008/9 recession but unemployment and inflation continues to be good. The low level of growth though continues to be a drag on government finances.

Pay Gap Case Study #3- Will the BBC’s gender pay gap narrow after losing to Samira Ahmed?

February 13, 2020 By Nigel

The BBC presenter Samira Ahmed has won her claim for equal pay at the employment tribunal. She successfully claimed that Jeremy Vine was an appropriate comparator for her pay. She is not the only female presenter to make a claim with over 50 more claims under consideration at present. Assuming that these are all successful, will these have any effect on the BBC’s gender pay gap for 2019 of 7p in the pound?

Pay Gaps #13 – How could Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting be introduced in the UK?

February 11, 2020 By Nigel

On 5th February 2020, Baroness Prosser laid a bill in the House of Lords which calls for the introduction of ethnicity pay gap reporting in addition to a number of other initiatives. Last year I explained why ethnicity pay gap reporting cannot follow the same process as gender pay gap reporting so now is the time to explore how ethnicity pay gap reporting could be carried out.

UK Weather Tracker #36 – January 2020

February 7, 2020 By Nigel

January 2020 was the 6th warmest January on record. The met office has recently released data for the late 19th century so the record now goes back further than before.