Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted
Paragraph: 77
Inadequate evaluation prevents robust conclusions on policymaker's access to evidence.
Conclusion
It was not possible for us to form a robust conclusion about how well served our policy-makers are by evidence in 2024. Ironically, for a group of people dedicated to the cause of informed decision-making, analysts appear to have done little by way of evaluating the function’s success in delivering its vision. What we did hear anecdotally, however, suggests that there might be significant room for improvement.
Government Response Summary
The ONS accepts the implicit recommendation to review the AF's scope, standard, and evaluate its impact. The AF Central Team commits to undertaking a light-touch assessment and updating the Committee on findings by Q2 2025/26, subject to funding.
Paragraph Reference:
77
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The ONS accepts the Committee’s recommendation to review the AF’s scope and standard with achievable next steps in mind and will take the points raised away for further consideration. Subject to gaining sufficient funding for the AFCT, the team will review the scope of the AF, which will be reflected in the updated AF Strategy for 2025–2028. The team will also review the AF standard, focusing on any changes needed to reflect the importance of transparency in analysis. With regards to the evaluation of the AF, subject to funding, the AFCT will evaluate the impact of their work to support analysts across government. It will also undertake a light touch assessment of the impact of analysis more widely, using existing evidence sources, such as the results of the assessment against the AF Standard. This will be complemented by the work of departmental Chief Analysts who are responsible for evaluating the impact of their analysis and whether it is meeting the needs of their decision makers. The AFCT will update the Committee on the findings of this evaluation, via a letter from the National Statistician to the Chair. The AFCT anticipate that this work will be completed by Q2 2025/26. However, further reviews of the standard, and evaluation of the work of the Central Team, will be undertaken as part of our business as usual.