An independent statistician using data to understand our world and to predict the future
The 2023 Six Nations (Men’s) ended with Ireland beating England to win their 3rd 6 Nations Grand Slam in the last 15 years. France ran them close and Scotland recorded their 1st top 3 placing since 2018. England & Wales disappointed their fans whilst Italy have some grounds for optimism despite their wooden spoon.
[Read more…] about 6 Nations History #3 – The men’s story so far in 2023
The 2022 Six Nations (Men’s) ended with France beating England to win their 1st Grand Slam and 6 Nations title since 2010. Ireland ran them close scoring 24 tries in all (joint 2nd highest on record) and Italy won their 1st game in 36 matches in dramatic fashion in Cardiff. England, Wales and Scotland all disappointed their fans and have questions to answer.
[Read more…] about 6 Nations History #2 – The men’s story so far in 2022
To close a pay gap you have to do three things:
All 3 steps require the use of statistical thinking and statistical methods. Of course, other skills and processes are also needed but they cannot succeed on their own without the help of statistics
[Read more…] about Stats Training Materials – Pay Gap Analytics
Is pay gap reporting about transparency or accountability? This was the main theme of the House of Lords debate on Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting (EPGR) on 25th October 2021, unlike the Commons debate that preceded it in September. The 9 peers who spoke could be split between those who see EPGR as an exercise in employer transparency and those who see EPGR as an exercise in employer accountability and I consider this to be a fundamental question that has not yet been answered. In this article, I will discuss the implications of both answers to this question for any future EPGR legislation.
[Read more…] about Pay Gaps #25B – House of Lords’s debate on Ethnicity Pay Gaps – My thoughts
The UK Parliament debated Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting (EPGR) on 20th September 2021 in Westminster Hall. Seven MPs spoke in the hour long debate and, as debates go, I thought it was actually quite good. There was cross party consensus on the merits of EPGR but I saw a divide between those who recognise EPGR is complex and requires trade offs and those who think the complexities of EPGR can be solved with government guidance.
[Read more…] about Pay Gaps #25A – House of Common’s debate on Ethnicity Pay Gaps – My thoughts
The 2021 Six Nations (Men’s) ended with Wales winning the title after Scotland beat France in Paris to snuff out France’s attempt to win the title for the first time since 2010. Wales let a Grand Slam slip after conceding a try in injury time and as an England fan who was there at Wembley in 1999 I know exactly how the Welsh feel!
[Read more…] about 6 Nations History #1 – The men’s story so far in 2021
Welcome to my next case study where I look at the 2019 pay gap figures of Novartis UK. They caught my eye when they posted on LinkedIn the following statement.
“… our 2019 gender pay report which highlights that on average, women earn more than men across all of our UK sites and divisions…“
When I looked at the two legal entities that were required to report gender pay gaps, I saw that both reported pay gaps favouring men instead. Something odd is going here and it’s a perfect case study to show why anyone who analyses pay gaps needs to pay more attention to a Bletchley Park codebreaker from world war 2 who introduced the world to Simpson’s Paradox.
[Read more…] about Pay Gap Case Study #4 – What is the gender pay gap at Novartis UK?
Updated on 14th May 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
The Financial Times (FT) has estimated the true number of COVID19 related deaths in the UK as of 20th April 2020 is 42,000 not 17,000 as published by the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC). In this article, I show that the FT headline is incorrect and is the result of either the FT comparing apples with pears due to a misunderstanding over what the various data sets measure or the FT attempting to estimate a number that can never be verified.
[Read more…] about Coronavirus #3 – How many people have died of COVID19 in the UK?
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.
[Read more…] about Pay Gaps #13 – How could Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting be introduced in the UK?
