Three Months Late - Natural England Blames 'Tweaks' For Data Delay

As Natural England continues to push back publication of its wildlife licensing data, the patience of the public is wearing thin....

• mysterious 'tweaks' delay publication of wildlife stats
• release of data now rescheduled for June - three months late

Mysterious 'Tweaks'
After delaying publication of the wildlife licensing data for a full two months (it was due in March), Natural England  suddenly decided that some 'tweaks' were needed before the data could be published.
This in spite of the fact that on 16th April they told me that "We have all the data and an explanatory blog ready to go".
With regard to those mysterious 'tweaks', David Slater, Natural England's Head of National Operations, told me on 13th May that "There was a bit of a pipeline of communications to be published this month and ours in the queue. I was also not happy with how some of the data was presented, so have asked for some tweaks..."
All I know is that the data is now nearly three months late and people are really running out of patience.
Mr Slater added "So I’m afraid it wont be going live until at least next week."
Well guess what - 'next week' came and went.....

21st May: And another excuse....
Relentlessly I chased up the data yet again; and with diminishing hope of it appearing any time soon, I asked Natural England for a statement to pass on to you all.
Here is the response:
"It's been an extremely busy month for government comms. The pre-election period has created a backlog and we have been asking for a slot for the last few weeks. The earliest slot I have been able to get is 10th June would you believe."

Would I believe???
Well,  I won't comment on that further than to say if it's 10th June then so be it. 
That said, cynic that I am, earlier this month I submitted a freedom of information request to obtain the complete data, just in case it wasn't forthcoming from Natural England....
I should have the results of that request within a similar time frame to the proposed official release of the stats, so let's see which arrives first, the FOI results or Natural England's publication.....place your bets....
Of course I will let you all know when either is available and I'll begin the task of sifting through the figures.
Meanwhile thanks for your continued support. 
We've come this far, we're not giving in, of course we're not!
This is for the birds, for wildlife in the UK. Indeed now it is a matter of principle too.
We should be able to rely on government advisers to do the job they are tasked with and paid to do, but as I believe we have shown many times, they cannot be trusted to look after nature on our behalf without our careful monitoring and intervention.
And so the campaign continues.
​Here again is the petition: please continue to share far and wide: Link to Petition