Guidance

Guidance - further information about the Bovine TB in Great Britain statistics user survey questions

Updated 29 January 2021

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. Introduction

This document provides more information on the feedback survey questions.

2. County level herd incidence using herd years at risk

We are seeking feedback on publication of county level statistics.

Currently the Quarterly National Statistics include Herd Incidence defined as new herd incidents per 100 herd years at risk, for GB countries, England risk areas, and Wales TB areas. County level data is not currently available at this level but it is published annually in the Bovine TB Epidemiology report. We would like to know if users would benefit from access to quarterly county level Herd Incidence statistics.

Prevalence, the percentage of herds under restriction, is published for the same geographical areas as herd incidence. It can be derived by users from the published data by county non-officially TB free herds divided by total herds registered. We would like to know if users would find it helpful to have county prevalence statistics alongside county herd incidence statistics.

3. Frequency of publication

We are seeking feedback on publishing frequency.

Currently the National Statistics are published quarterly, three months in arrears, and include the calculation of the latest headline incidence rate for GB. Between the quarterly publications we publish monthly releases that are classed as Official Statistics. However, short term changes in statistics should be considered in the context of long term trends and for that reason focussing on the most recent fluctuations can be counter-productive.

We are proposing that the underlying official statistics 3 page release and datasets are no longer published monthly. Instead these datasets will be published every quarter. This would mean a delay of up to two months to access the monthly data.

Each quarter we would continue to publish:

• a statistical notice showing the headline statistics in charts and tables
• overview documents
• herd incidence and prevalence measures
• detailed statistical datasets at county, TB area, and country level

We would like your feedback on this proposal.

4. County groupings

The county level National Statistics are currently published in workbooks for the four administrative regions of England (South West, South East, Midlands and North) previously used by Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). However, these regions no longer reflect the current administrative geography in England.

We are proposing that we:

• discontinue the publication of the administrative region of England datasets (South West, South East, Midlands and North)
• start to publish the English county data in three datasets grouped by the TB risk areas of High Risk Area, Edge and Low Risk Area.

The TB areas in Wales do not map to full counties, therefore the current publication of six TB areas and counties without area designation will continue.

We would like your feedback on the new dataset groupings.

5. Interactive dashboard

The underlying datasets have been published in their current format for five years. New technology means that interactive interpretation of the statistics can be easily produced. In March 2020 we launched an interactive dashboard to visualise the bTB datasets.

We would like your feedback on this innovation.

6. Accessibility

New regulations place an obligation on all government websites to meet accessibility rules by 23rd September 2020. We will be changing our releases, both statistical notices and datasets to ensure compliance.

Proposals include:

• moving from pdf to HTML releases.
• adding alt text to assist with screen reading.
• introducing machine readable files (csv format) alongside the datasets (ods format).

We would like your feedback on your accessibility needs as well as making users aware of the upcoming changes.

7. How to access the survey and provide feedback

Taking part in the feedback survey is an important opportunity for you to help us understand your needs, highlight areas for improvement and develop future statistical content.