Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Rejected
Classify People Survey results as official statistics, complying with Code of Practice.
Recommendation
The People Survey is a dataset of significant public interest. In future, the People Survey results should be treated and classified as official statistics and be published in full compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Cabinet Office should formally request the assessment of the People Survey against the Code of Practice as soon as possible and - as part of this work - liaise with the Office for Statistics Regulation for further information on how to apply the Code while protecting the ability of participating organisations to access and use results in a timely fashion. In its response to this report, the Cabinet Office should update the Committee on its progress with this process. (Paragraph 46) Responding to Results
Government Response Summary
The Cabinet Office does not accept the recommendation to classify People Survey results as official statistics, arguing it is primarily a management tool. It commits to publishing high-level findings commentary and reducing timing between internal and external distribution, which is not the core of this recommendation.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The Cabinet Office does not accept this recommendation. The Civil Service People Survey is primarily a management tool aiming to support UK government departments and agencies to embed and improve employee engagement with their organisations. The Survey is also an effective mechanism for internal and external accountability that provides invaluable insight to help measure progress against the aims and outcomes of major cross Civil Service policy initiatives. Currently, the People Survey looks to match a number of the approaches set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics given the wide interest in the annual results, including those relating to quality assurance and to providing technical guidance to users. This helps to show our commitment to producing outputs that are respected for their high quality and which inform decision making. We commit to publishing a commentary of the main high-level findings and reducing the timing between internal and external distribution of the findings.