In this blog, Head of OSR, Ed Humpherson explores the role of statistics in the missions set out in the Government’s Plan for Change, reflecting OSR’s core focus on transparency of statistics and data use in Government.
The UK Government has launched an ambitious programme of mission-led government, built around five missions and three foundations. This blog considers these missions from the perspective of statistics and data to inform the public
The five missions and three foundations are set out in the Government’s Plan for Change. The foundations are:
- Economic Stability
- Secure Borders
- National Security
The missions are:
- Kickstarting Economic Growth
- Safer Streets
- An NHS Fit for the Future
- Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower
- Break Down Barriers to Opportunity
The purpose of these missions is to orientate and coordinate government around high level ambitions. The missions are big, high level goals, as opposed to specific Election manifesto delivery commitments. As such they provide a focus for action, and require collaboration across Departmental boundaries.
Each of the missions is underpinned by statistics. Statistics are used to: define the problem and set milestones for progress; monitor progress; and identify links and key drivers of outcomes.
At OSR we are interested in how the missions draw on and use statistics. In particular, we are keen to understand the role of statistics in the detailed mission plans that underpin each mission; and the quality and accessibility of statistics and data. This reflects our core focus on transparency of statistics and data use in Government.
The first point to make about the missions is that while they are a new tool for the UK Government, programmes for Government have already existed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for some time. These programmes are often underpinned by statistical frameworks.
For example, The Northern Ireland Executive has the Programme for Government, with four cross-cutting Missions (People, Planet, Prosperity and Peace). It’s supported by the PfG Wellbeing Framework and the award-winning NISRA Wellbeing Dashboard. All the indicators used in the Framework are official statistics.
Similar resources are available for Scotland in the Programme for Government 2025 to 2026 – gov.scot; and through Wales’s https://www.gov.wales/programme-government.
Secondly, we have considered the role of statistics and data in each of the five missions and for the secure borders foundation, drawing on our principles of intelligent transparency: asking whether the statistics available and accessible to the public, and whether it is clear what the statistics cover.
Applying these questions to the five missions:
- The growth mission draws heavily on economic statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It sets two measures of economic growth as milestones: Real GDP per head; and Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) per head. These measures are both reported in ONS’s GDP quarterly national accounts. Both measures make use of ONS population estimates and projections (see this blog by Mary Gregory of ONS) to calculate the “per head” figure. For RHDI per head, another question surrounds how easy it is for a member of the public to access and understand these figures. We are discussing both issues with ONS.
- In addition, the growth mission sets a target for housebuilding based on official statistics. The mission targets the creation of 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament. There is a clear statistic, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), called Net Additional Dwellings, which provides a sound basis for measuring progress. The most recent release published in November 2024 covers housebuilding in between April 2023 and March 2024 in England. In addition, for monitoring progress, including specifically for the parliamentary term, Government has developed a more timely, now-cast style indicator using Energy Performance Certificate data, which MHCLG now publishes in its quarterly indicators of new housing supply statistics.
- Net zero – there are a wide-range of official statistics available. Progress against this mission will be measured by the Government being on track to achieving at least 95% of low carbon electricity generation by 2030, in line with its Clean Power 2030 action plan. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes accredited official statistics on Energy Trends each quarter, which do track the extent of low carbon electricity generation in the UK. However, this is quite a technical area, and users at this year’s UK Statistics Assembly expressed a general appetite for statistics relating to monitoring net-zero progress and climate change to be clearer and made more easily accessible to the public.
- Safer streets – there are lots of available data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales, and from policing statistics. But this area of the missions is seeing the most activity in terms of developing new official statistics, including the development by ONS of new measures associated with Violence Against Women and Girls. In addition, ONS is developing a new survey to understand the prevalence of child abuse in children and young people aged 11-25 years, which may also inform the Opportunities mission. The Home Office is developing new official statistics to measure progress against the target to recruit 13,000 more officers into neighbourhood policing roles (the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee). Note that the main measures focus on England and Wales, rather than the whole of the UK.
- Opportunities – A range of existing official statistics are available from DfE and across government to measure the four pillars that underpin this mission, although some metrics will require more detailed breakdowns of the data. DfE is also publishing additional content to support analysis and public understanding, such as ad-hoc statistics releases (including on Schools Eligible for RISE intervention) and new management information releases (including on schools in the breakfast clubs early adopters scheme). The mission has connections across the UK – in key areas like child poverty and in developing and exchanging best practice. The education elements focus primarily on young people in England, reflecting the fact that education is a devolved matter.
- Health – there are a wide range of health system metrics that are already available. We will consider undertaking compliance reviews of the key metrics over the next couple of years. As with safer streets and opportunities, the main milestone set out in the Government’s Plan for Change covers NHS waiting time performance in England, and therefore does not cover other parts of the UK. And it is important to bear in mind the points made in my recent blog on difference between population health and system performance.
In terms of the Safer Border foundation, the focus on migration has seen lots of statistical developments in recent years which we have covered in our regulatory work – for example, here. And the Government’s recent announcements on migration draws heavily on published statistics, as can be seen in the recent White Paper Restoring Control over the Immigration System May 2025.
Conclusion
The missions are an important feature of the UK Government’s programme. They represent a key set of commitments from UK Government, and it is important that they are underpinned by reliable and accessible data. We will do further work to provide assurance on the relevant statistics over the coming years. As this blog highlights, the missions mix some policy areas that are UK-wide with others that focus on England (housing, health and education) or England and Wales (crimes/safer streets). With forthcoming elections in Wales and Scotland in mind, we will also consider how best to help voters navigate data and statistics in the run up to these elections, as we did last year with the UK General Election – see our Election 2024 hub for an overview of our work during that campaign period. We will also consider the questions raised by this blog for the new programmes for Government in Wales and Scotland after next year’s elections.