Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Paragraph: 44
Government departments fail to share data due to lack of incentives and central coordination.
Conclusion
Despite the passage of relevant legislation in 2017, the UK has failed to bring its disparate datasets together to enrich its public evidence base. Instead, data withers in silos across countless government bodies. Witnesses to our inquiry were clear; the problems here are not legislative, and they do not result from challenges around data protection. The issue is much simpler; departments and public bodies choose not to share data because they do not share an incentive to do so. And no central, coordinating leader has yet made a sufficiently strong case for the benefits of sharing data for statistics and research across government.
Government Response Summary
The ONS is continuing work to develop and improve admin-based population estimates, aiming for them to become official mid-year population estimates in 2025. The Authority also expects to publish its recommendation on the future of population and migration statistics in England and Wales in the coming months.
Paragraph Reference:
44
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
26. Both the ONS and the Authority welcome the Committee’s recognition of the opportunities offered by administrative data sources. We also recognise the need to improve the culture of data-sharing across government if we are to maximise those opportunities. This is a challenge that was also highlighted by Professor Denise Lievesley’s review earlier this year, and which the Authority continues to work with partners across the public sector to resolve. 27. Data already held within the public sector mean population and migration statistics can be more consistently accurate and produced more often and quickly. As a result, decision-makers have more, higher-quality, information about local populations, their characteristics, where they live and the public services they need. 28. In line with the Committee’s recommendation, the ONS continues its work to develop and improve admin-based population estimates, using innovative new methods and a wider range of data sources, accounting for quality limitations in the data. We published updated estimates as official statistics in development in July,16 and aim for these to become the official mid-year population estimates in 2025. 29. The Authority expects to publish its recommendation on the future of population and migration statistics in England and Wales in the coming months. This recommendation will draw on extensive engagement with users of these statistics, including through the public consultation last year, and will include the Authority’s proposed approach to the future of the census in England and Wales. The Analysis Function