sir david norgrove said, the data is "still far from complete and comprehensible" which means "it isely criticised and often mistrusted". hugh pym reports. a drive—in testing centre today but with very little activity, as a new debate on precisely how many virus tests have been carried out has flared up. the health secretary matt hancock made great play in recent weeks of the plans to boost testing. i'm now setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day... currently just over 50,000 tests available... i can announce that we have met our goal... but today he has been criticised by the head of the uk statistics watchdog over the numbers. he cast doubt over how many tests have actually been carried out and on how many people. in his letter sir david norgrove welcome the addition of some new data but added, i'm afraid the figures are still far from complete and comprehensible. the way that the data are analysed and presented currently gives them limited value. the aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding. the health secretary was chall

in his letter sir david norgrove welcomes the addition of some new data but adds... plete that the figures are still far from complete and comprehensible. the way the data are analysed and presented currently gives them a limited value. the aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests even at the expense of understanding. the health secretary was challenged by labour in the commons. the uk statistics authority have written to him today saying that his figures are still "far from complete and comprehensive," that the testing statistics still fall far short of standards in the code. and that it is not surprising that testing data is mistrusted. this is quite damning, i have to say to the secretary of state. we will work with the uk statistics authority to make sure that they are happy with how we are publishing that data, to make sure that we get the data published in a reasonable and sensible way. the daily figures show tests for whether people currently have the virus. in one recent day over 128,000 tests were provided. 27,500 were for hospital staff

sir david norgrove said the data is "still far from complete and comprehensible" which means "it is note so widely criticised and often mistrusted". it comes as 324 more deaths have been recorded in the uk in the last 2a hours. 39,369 people have now died. here's our health editor, hugh pym. a drive—in testing centre today but with very little activity is a new debate on precisely how many virus tests have been carried out has flared up. the health secretary matt hancock made great play in recent weeks of the plans to boost testing. i'm now setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day. currentlyjust over 50,000 tests available. i can announce that we have met our goal. but today he has been criticised by the head of the uk statistics watchdog over the numbers. they cast doubt over how many tests have actually been carried out and on how many people. in his letter sir david norg rove many people. in his letter sir david norgrove welcome the addition of some new data but added i'm afraid the figures are still far from com plete the figures are still far from complete and comprehensible. the

in his letter, sir david norgrove welcomes the addition of some new data, but adds... by labour in the commons. the uk statistics authority have written to him today, saying that his figures are still "far from complete and comprehensive," that the testing statistics still fall well short of standards in the code and that it is not surprising that testing data is mistrusted. i mean, this is quite damning, i have to say to the secretary of state. we will work with the uk statistics authority to make sure that they are happy with how we're publishing that data, to make sure that we get the data published in a reasonable and sensible way. the daily figures published show tests for whether people currently have the virus. in one recent day, over 108,000 tests were provided. 27,500 were for nhs staff and patients, around 29,400 were people getting tested at drive—in centres, nearly a4,000 were test kits sent out though not yet returned, nearly 28,000 were for research and antibody tests — finding out whether someone‘s already had the virus. the number of people tested isn't

sir david norgrove described the figures as "inadequate" and said they "fall well short of expectationstistics were being presented in a way that aims to "show the largest possible number of tests. " our health correspondent richard galpin is here. talk us through a bit more about this criticism from sir david. statistics is normally quite a dry subject but in this case, this amounts to an attack on the way the government is handling statistical data. yes, it is withering criticism, quite a bombshell from him, and he is really questioning the figures the government has put out, indicating he doesn't believe many of them are actually correct. for example he says the government figures on testing are far from com plete figures on testing are far from complete and comprehensible. they are of limited value in determining how many people have been affected. that is a crucial stat. he is saying the aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests even at the expense of understanding. some very strong criticism. he comes up with examples saying that the government headline total of

sir david norgrove said it appeared that ministers wanted to show that the largest possible number of and the way the figures were presented gave them limited value. mr hancock said it was important to get the data right and committed to working with sir david. formula one and international cricket have announced plans to return from next month. motor racing officials have approved an initial eight—race calendar across europe. england will host the west indies in three test matches over a 21—day period, subject to downing street clearance. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: news, still to come: spike lee speaks out — the director tells the bbc he thinks donald trump is trying to act like a dictator. the queen and her husband began their royal progress to westminster. the moment of crowning, in accordance with the order of service, by a signal given the great guns of the tower. tributes have been paid around the world to muhammad ali, who has died at the age of 7a. 0utspoken but rarely out—fought, ali transcended the sport of boxing of which he was three—times world champion. he

i spoke to sir david norgrove today, the head of uk statistics authority, and we will be working withe constantly improved. but the way we present them is the simplest way of presenting a very complex picture of the overall five different pillars of testing, and that is the approach we have taken. 0n the first part of your question about the report from public health england, i think this is an incredibly important area. i have been really struck by the clear difference in the proportion of people who are dying with covid—i9 from ethnic minority backgrounds, and i want to get to the bottom of it, so i asked public health england to do this work by the end of may and they have done that. you are absolutely right that there is much more work that needs to be done and this report shows that. so we are asking, i have asked the equalities minister to take this forward to explore the causes and what further can be done. professor newton has been involved in the work from the start. 0n the reporting of statistics, the object objective of the testing programme was to build the capacity to res

sir david norgrove described the figures as "inadequate" and said they "fall well short of expectations statistics were being presented in a way that aims to "show the largest possible number of tests — even at the expense of understanding". our health correspondent richard galpin explains. to start with, they're saying that the government figures on testing are far from complete and comprehensive, and he's going on to say that the way they are analysed and presented gives limited value for how many people are actually being infected. and then, actually, as you were saying, he says the aim seems to be show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding. and he goes on to give some examples. so, one of them is he says the headline total of tests carried out, includes test kits posted out to people at home, but in fact there is no data whatsoever on how many people have actually used those tests, the kits and actually carried out the test. generally he's saying the figures are presented in a way that's difficult to understand without looking at the technical no

stage where you can't trust the figures that have been put out not give you the quote from the david norgrove he said the aim the government same seems to be to show the largest number of tests even at the expense of understanding that sort of interrupt you but. we're going to go live to washington. where president trump is. posing for photographs of the moment for the media we're hoping that he might. say something as he visits. the pope john paul the 2nd shrine in washington we were told that he was going to go to war in a way that he did last night. obviously hasn't worked because nobody in the media has seen him. and here he is. we will we'll keep an eye on on that as our correspondent saying a little earlier this was this event was added to the president's show deal. only yesterday. so we're wondering whether the president is going to use this as an opportunity to address the media obviously going through. the the somber element of this event 1st as i said we'll keep across that and if the president speaks to the media we'll go to it live here on to syria in the meantime well we'll move