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Overview
In July 2024, OSR initiated a systemic review of economic statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). We published an interim report in April 2025 and a final report in November 2025. Our reports, alongside evidence gathered from stakeholders, identified consistent cross-cutting concerns about data quality, survey response, the use of administrative data, stakeholder engagement, prioritisation and the transparency of resource allocation decisions.
In June 2025, ONS published its Plan for Economic Statistics (ESP) and Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics (SIEP) in response to both OSR’s interim report and the Devereux Review. OSR’s final report confirmed the concerns identified in the interim report and found that, while ONS had made initial progress, further action was needed. We judged that ONS’s plans met the immediate requirements to restore confidence, improve strategic transparency and strengthen data quality, while noting that continued assurance would be needed to assess delivery and user-facing improvements.
At OSR’s request, ONS committed to publishing quarterly public progress updates. OSR responded to the first ONS update in January 2026 and the second ONS update in May 2026. The January response set three further recommendations on user-focused reporting, cost information and further reporting on quality reviews, recruitment and retention, and legacy systems. In May, we assessed progress against those recommendations. We judged that ONS had met the recommendation on further reporting on quality reviews, recruitment and legacy systems; had partially met the recommendation on user-focused reporting; and had made progress on improving transparency around cost information. We also set out what ONS would need to demonstrate in its July update. The Progress on Recommendations section of this report sets out these recommendations and assesses the progress made.
ONS’s July 2026 update brings the Economic Statistics Plan and Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan into a more integrated Surveys and Economic Statistics plan. It describes a clearer portfolio model, revised milestones, a developing KPI framework, a waiting room for work that should not yet proceed, and further progress in priority areas including the Statistical Business Register, the Transformed Labour Force Survey, National Accounts, prices, public sector statistics and digital-first collection for the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).
This report responds to ONS’s third update published in July 2026 and sets out our assessment of progress made by ONS to the OSR recommendations.
Overall assessment
ONS’s July 2026 update marks a further and important step in its response to the findings of our systemic review of economic statistics. There is evidence of stronger leadership, greater transparency, and a renewed focus on engagement with users. We welcome the clearer and more disciplined approach to managing the Surveys and Economic Statistics (SES) portfolio, the move towards a smaller set of priorities and indicators, and a more transparent account of where work is being sequenced, deferred or dependent on further evidence. ONS has also taken steps to strengthen its performance reporting and to explain the choices it is making in an environment of constrained capacity.
In light of ONS’s progress, we intend to move to annual OSR assessments of progress, as opposed to the current approach of publishing OSR assessments of progress every quarter.
However we recognise that significant risks remain, because of the scale and complexity of the challenges ONS faces. In the light of these risks, we will maintain our requirement that ONS itself publishes a quarterly update on progress, and OSR will continue to assess progress through our ongoing regulatory work programme.