The UK Statistics Authority has turned down the chance of getting involved in the row between the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the think-tank Civitas.

Civitas complained that the EHRC report claiming there was no evidence that immigrants were disproportionately favoured in their access to social housing was flawed. You could draw no such conclusion from it, Professor Mervyn Stone and Civitas complained.

But the board of UKSA has declined to get involved. The issue is not one of misrepresentation of official statistics, says UKSA's Chairman Sir Michael Scolar in a letter to Civitas, but whether the conclusions drawn can be seen to follow from the available evidence. "We cannot take on the role of commentator on the quality of government-sponsored research" he says.