Consultation on proposed changes to the Code of Practice for Statistics

Dr Sarah Cumbers, Chief Executive of the Royal Statistical Society, chaired the session. 

Consultation presentation by OSR 

Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation in OSR, talked about the importance of conversation. He went through what we heard at the RSS roundtable in the Code review last year and how it has heavily influenced OSR’s thinking, shown in the draft third edition in the Code consultation 

• Better represent the concept of ‘public statistics’ promoted by the RSS (raised by Paul Allin) – the draft Code strongly emphasises the universality of the framework  

• Place a strong emphasis on meeting user needs and the importance of engagement (raised by Anna Powell-Smith, Tony Dent and Simon Briscoe) – we have reflected this in a standard putting users at the centre of decision making and calling on producers to listen to and act on feedback and be transparent about planning 

• Ensure statistics reflect different communities, interests and needs (raised by Dev Virdee) – the draft Code has sought to partly address this through a stronger emphasis on understanding and promoting the social acceptability of data collection and reporting 

• Drive improvements in methods and reporting of statistics (raised by Tony Dent for Better Statistics) – through prominently explaining strengths limitations of statistics and clearly communicate uncertainty  

• Improve data access for researchers (raised by Alison Macfarlane) – we are seeking to strengthen opportunity for access and reuse through a standard requiring clear information about the nature and availability of data, releasing supplementary analysis and making data available in a way that is useful for researchers, including metadata 

• Overcome the lack of transparency about the use of evidence in policy making to support policy decisions (raised by Olly Bartrum at IfG) – we have included standards of intelligent transparency aimed at government departments, leaders and those communicating statistics, as well as the guiding principles for reaching out to a wider range of analysts 

• Strengthen accountability (raised by David Caplan) – we have included a guide based on David’s recommendations and directed producers to hold themselves accountable to their users in the standard  

Ed emphasised the continuing conversation through the feedback in this session, as well as other meetings and through the consultation responses to come. It is important to see this as an ongoing dialogue. See Ed’s blog for further thoughts on the importance of conversation.

Penny Babb, head of policy and standards, then outlined the consultation material and ideas developed by OSR, including the guiding principles for any analysts, the Standards for Official Statistics and the Standards for Intelligent Transparency. Particularly helpful for anyone familiar with the current edition (Code 2.1), the mapping spreadsheet (available within the consultation downloads) will be useful to see how OSR is proposing to present content currently in the Code as well as add new practices. 

Comments from invited speakers: 

Paul Allin, RSS honorary officer for national statistics, set out the RSS’s vision for meeting society’s needs for statistics in an increasingly data rich world. The RSS has begun by focusing on what questions need statistics to help answer them, rather than starting from the available statistics and unpicking that. One way to gather those questions will be through the new Statistics Assembly (first meeting is on 22 January 2025). Going forward, it will also need the involvement of users and potential users in working with producers to identify what is needed. It will rely on leadership, curating different sources – from government and a wider range of settings, understanding the different sources, supporting more analysis and not just more statistics. Paul is looking for a greater reflection of public statistics in the detailed practices as well as in the high-level framework of the Code. He emphasised his view of placing Value first in the Code framework, rather than Trustworthiness. 

Ken Roy, independent researcher and former Head of Profession, highlighted the importance of the Code as the glue that holds together the UK’s official statistics system, which is large and complex. He supports the greater universality of the Code but asked for some consideration of whether we have lost some of the legislative grounding and grip from the narrative. He welcomed the new Guidance on Accountability but suggested some further clarity on accountability for the decisions on which Official Statistics are produced and on who producers should be accountable to (the balance between the General Public, Users and the National Statistician). 

Ken also supported the notion of enhanced user involvement but asked for more clarity what is meant by users – observing that the current focus seems to be more on current users rather than potential users? And what about when the users aren’t human but bots or automated web scrapping? Ken also suggested that the Code could do more to recognise that users are not a homogenous group, all thinking alike, but they can have different, sometimes contradictory, views – hence the onus should be on producers to be more honest about which user needs are being met (first). Finally, reflecting on implementation, Ken suggested that there would be value in moving beyond a focus on individual products – looking at how the Code might be implemented at a portfolio level, both from the perspective of producers (who might come together to develop engagement and development plans for a group of products) and from the perspective of OSR (in terms of the scope of their assessments). 

Deana Leadbeter, chair of the Health Statistics User Group, highlighted that users start from a perspective of wanting statistics or information they can trust and that meets their needs regardless of which statistics provider produces it. Deana welcomed the emphasis on the universality of the Code and links to public statistics, she sees this as beneficial in raising standards that will better support users accessing useful data. Deana also supports OSR’s voluntary application scheme in helping achieve this. She also liked the emphasis on putting users at the centre of decision making and sees it as an ongoing dialogue. Deana would like to see a stronger emphasis on recognising the value that users bring through their knowledge, expertise and understanding – that it is a two-way process.  

Deana is keen for OSR to be able to hear from a wide range of users, but they may be put off by the large amount of material in the consultation. She recommended approaching users and potential users about their interest in statistics initially and then following up with what they would like to see from the Code. It is important for the Code to be seen as relevant to users and producers in their work and not as a large administrative document.