Dear Rebecca

We have completed our assessment of your Funded Occupation Pension Scheme (FOPS) statistics against the Code of Practice for Statistics. We found that the redevelopment of the Financial Survey of Pension Schemes has significantly improved the quality of these statistics and good working relationships with survey respondents have kept response rates high. These statistics are now more useful to a range of governmental departments and international organisations, for example feeding more information into National Accounts and influencing policy from the Department for Work and Pensions.

We judge that FOPS statistics can be designated as National Statistics subject to ONS making two improvements, on which your team has committed to report progress by the end of October 2022. These are to deliver key insights to meet user demand and maximise the value of the statistics, and to develop a transparent work programme explaining the priorities for FOPS statistics.

I am copying this letter to Pete Lee, Head of Corporations Division, ONS and Kevin Buckthought, Head of Other Financial Institutions, Insurance and Pensions, ONS.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation