Ally McAlpine is the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician. He has overall responsibility for the coordination and implementation of professional standards that help maintain trustworthiness in the use of data, its quality, and that deliver improved outcomes for people in Scotland.

Ally is currently leading statisticians and analysts in Scotland through a ‘Modernising our Statistics’ programme, which aims to improve the way data is accessed, analysed and integrated across the public sector in Scotland. He is also targeting innovative ways for statistics to be produced and published.

Ally is also co-director of ADR Scotland and a member of the ADR UK Leadership Committee, which aims to use data that is collected for better research and improve people’s lives through supporting Government to make the right decisions.

Ally led the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, which is the Scottish Government’s official tool for identifying deprived areas across Scotland, which won many awards in 2017 for its innovative ways in connecting these statistics to communities and improved its use in the general public.