Dear Mike
Suspension of the accredited official statistics status for the estimates ONS produces from the Annual Population Survey
Thank you for your letter setting out the outcomes of your evaluation of the quality of the statistics produced using the Annual Population Survey (APS).
We agree with your findings, and therefore agree to your request to suspend accredited official statistics status from ONS outputs produced using the APS. As you explain in your letter, this approach helps to convey the uncertainty and clearly signal the limitations of the data to users to support their appropriate use.
We welcome your plans to publish a technical note setting out how APS data can currently be used and what the limitations are and to work with other Departments which produce outputs using the APS data to help them understand the impact on their outputs. ONS will need to provide quality information, including areas of bias, coherence with other data sources and volatility, as appropriate to help other Departments determine the impact on their outputs.
The insights ONS gains from its quality review of this valuable source of data and statistics, will enable it to communicate the strengths and weaknesses to users across outputs and data release tools such as NOMIS so the data can continue to be used in an appropriate way.
Our Labour Market and Welfare domain team will continue to engage with your team on this matter.
Yours sincerely
Ed Humpherson
Related Links
Stephanie Howarth to Ed Humpherson: Request to suspend APS accreditation