Greens back Code of Practice for London

Last week Full Fact called on the London Mayoral candidates to commit to providing Londoners with better information by subscribing to the Code of Practice for Official Statistics should they win the election on 3 May.

As we said at the time, Full Fact has found serious problems with figures put out by City Hall on transport crime and reoffending. Those claims would not have been possible if London were covered by the same rules as almost every other part of the public sector.

Green candidate Jenny Jones has been the first to publicly back our call, pointing out that her party felt strongly enough about the issue to make the commitment in its London manifesto. The Greens have promised to:

"Sign up to the Code of Practice for Official Statistics to restore trust in the Mayor's use of statistics."

It's good to see Jenny Jones - who as an Assembly Member has also encouraged Boris Johnson's administration to subscribe to the Code - take up the gauntlet.

We've also had encouragement from a couple of other candidates who have indicated that they're willing to support our proposal. While neither has yet nailed their colours to the mast by making the pledge publicly, we hope that both will do so in the near future.

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