Head of Research (former)
The LSE has said of statistics: "if you can quantify the uncertainty … you have gone a long way towards understanding what is going on." Government statisticians have been thinking about how to put that into practice. Read
A 5p charge on disposable bags was one of the measures widely expected in the Queen's speech at today's opening of Parliament. Do we use 8 billion of them a year, as the Daily Mail said? Read
It was reported on BBC Radio 4 Today this morning that government proposals to introduce specific restrictions for young drivers have been scrapped (apart from in Northern Ireland)... Read
In the last party leader interview on the BBC's World at One programme before the local and European elections tomorrow, David Cameron claimed that he's cut £8 billion from the EU budget... Read
Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Nick Clegg claimed "millions of jobs in this country that are in one way or another dependent on our position in the European Union". As we've said before, this isn't quite true. Read
Education
The coalition's flagship free school meals policy has been criticised as being based on a "back of the fag packet" calculation. Here's the Department for Education's response to a Freedom of Information request we made on the dispute. Read
Education
Data from the Department for Education and analysis by the New Schools Network back up claims made at last week's Question Time, but it might be insufficient to draw meaningful comparisons. Read
In a much discussed blog post this week, Dominic Cummings made a number of criticisms of the planning behind the government's universal free school meals... Read
Economy, Business & Finance
We take a look at a claim made by the Deputy Prime Minister in the Commons this week. Read
The Independent has this morning accused the Chancellor of misleading the House of Commons. George Osborne told MPs in March that HM Revenue and Customs were... Read
