Recommendation 5

HM Government Accepted

1. The Authority welcomes the Committee’s fifth recommendation, that both a framework and a high-level assembly be established to identify and prioritise demands for evidence, with its findings submitted to PACAC for scrutiny on a triennial basis. Work is already underway to meet these objectives. In April, the ONS published its Strategic Business Plan for 2024– 25, setting out our approach to prioritisation in a constrained financial environment. The Plan makes a commitment to securing the stability and quality of our core statistical outputs across five priority areas. In taking on additional work, the ONS will seek to align its resources to activities and programmes where it is uniquely placed to deliver, and that have the highest impact on the strategic priorities. 2. As set out in the Authority’s response to the Lievesley Review, a UK Statistics Assembly will meet for the first time on 22 January 2025. It will bring together users and producers across sectors to discuss and give advice on the UK’s needs for statistics. The insights will be drawn together in a published advisory report, indicating potential priorities and data gaps for scrutiny by users and by your Committee. They will inform delivery planning for the ONS and other official statistical producers. 3. As well as identifying data gaps, the Assembly’s discussions will provide valuable insights on the quality of statistics, to contribute to shaping the OSR’s regulatory work programme. Following the first Assembly in January 2025, the Authority and stakeholders will review the frequency of future events, including the timing of future reporting to Parliament. As Professor Lievesley has pointed out, there is no precise template for an Assembly so the first will inevitably be an experiment from which we can learn. 4. Additionally, across the ONS, producers of statistics regularly engage with users of statistics across existing forums and advisory groups. For example, the ONS Local team (based physically in the nine regions of England as well as Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) act as the front door for local government to access the ONS and the wider GSS, supporting users to make the most of a wide range of data and analysis. 5. Furthermore, the ONS provides accessible digital content to help audiences find, understand, explore, and act upon its content. These include data visualisations and explorer tools, as well as explanatory articles and bite-sized videos to suit different audiences - available both on its own website and via external channels, including social media platforms. To extend the reach of statistics and data to audiences with whom the ONS traditionally has had less engagement, the ONS works with relevant organisations and citizen representative groups, to help disseminate its outputs as well as inform the design of communications. 6. The ONS have also initiated a Citizen Data project with the aim of securely playing back data held on the citizen to the citizen. This will enable ONS to engage directly on a one-to-one basis encouraging individuals to validate their personal data and help to improve characteristics coverage and public trust in the use and storage of administrative data. 7. OSR continuously seeks to embed the principle of statistics for the public good in its regulatory approach. The Code of Practice for Statistics3 has clear expectations that official statistics support the needs of a wide range of users, alongside policy makers. OSR is in the process of refreshing the Code4 and will continue to articulate and strengthen its expectations on this principle. One of the areas of focus for the refresh of the Code is a greater focus on user engagement. 8. OSR also conducts research to further understand how official statistics can serve the public good. In its recent think piece,5 OSR proposed that “official statistics serve the public good as public assets that provide insight, which allows them to be used widely for informing understanding and shaping action”. OSR is also undertaking complementary research into how individuals may use statistics in their personal lives.6 This research is used to strengthen its regulatory approach, and its advice and requirements on producers of official statistics. 3 https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Code-of-Practice- for-Statistics-REVISED.pdf 4 https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/futureproofing-the-code-of-practice- for-statistics-findings-and-next-steps-from-our-review/ 5 https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/how-statistics-can-serve-the-public- good-a-think-piece/ 6 https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/blog/how-do-we-use-statistics-in-everyday-life/ 9. As mentioned, the Authority’s current strategy, Statistics for the Public Good,7 launched in 2020 and will end in July 2025. We will look to engage with the Committee to ensure the next strategy reflects views from users, including Parliament. Navigating new data s