We were pleased that you carried the article about the problems data collection poses for multi-agency working ('Minus sign', pages 3233, 28 September).However, we wish to point out that authorship should be attributed to the Radical Statistics Health Group, not to Susan Kerrison and me, even though we were more involved in the actual writing than our coauthors.

The article did not form part of my work for the Department of Health-funded National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit.

The introduction to the article stated that 'The government's multi-agency plans may fail owing to data collection'. What we actually said was that lack of data could hamper the government's ability to monitor the plan. In other words, we may never know whether or not the plan works.

Alison Macfarlane Radical Statistics Health Group