On December 1st a headline in the Daily Mail declared “Revealed, the truth about UK crime: New official figures give more weight to worst offences... and show they're up by almost a fifth”,  adding that “The hidden reality of rising violent and sexual crime was exposed yesterday by a new official method of ranking offences by their severity …

What difference might it really make?

Recent media stories feature a new test for Down’s syndrome which the NHS is going to adopt as part of the screening programme offered to pregnant women.

The BBC quotes Department of Health statistics that the new test is estimated to save around 6,000 invasive tests a year, which would mean around 40 fewer …