Knife crime row emails published

Civil servants accused No10 of "cherry picking" knife crime statistics, emails have revealed.

Correspondence released on Thursday showed the seriousness of the December 2008 dispute between Number 10 and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) over the contents of a controversial press release.

The dispute centred on whether unpublished Department of Health statistics on hospital admissions should be used in a Home Office press release about the effectiveness of their six-month old Tackling Knives Action Programme.

The Home Office's decision to publish the data on December 11, despite a NHS Information Centre (NHS IC) statement that the provisional and "potentially inaccurate" data must not be released, resulted in a complaint to Number 10 from UK Statistics Authority chairman Michael Scholar the following day.

Home secretary Jacqui Smith later apologised to MPs about the release.

In the emails, sent on December 10 and 11, a Downing Street request for permssion to use the hospital admissions data was bounced up the chain of command within the Department of Health (DH) and the NHS IC.

In one email, Number 10 are described as being "adamant about the need to publish this statistic". The health official continued: "I have been informed that they are likely to publish the data irrespective of the concerns raised".

In response, NHS IC head of profession for statistics Andy Sutherland said such a release went against the "fundamental principles of statistics" and the government's recent creation of the UK Statistics Authority to improve trust in government data.

"On a practical note, this will look to observers as if the [government] has cherry picked the good news and forced out publication for political ends - is this really what they want?" he asked.

National statistician Karen Dunnell and Downing Street permanent secretary Jeremy Heywood were both brought into the email trail on December 11, but the release was still published by the Home Office that day.

In a letter to the Commons public administration committee, which was responsible for publishing the emails, Cabinet Office minister Kevin Brennan said that, due to a "misunderstanding", the Home Office had believed that the NHS IC's concerns had been addressed.

Brennan also revealed that special advisors at both Number 10 and DH had been part of the discussions about whether to publish the data, but he emphasised "that the Home Office, not special advisors, took the final decision to do so".