As we enter the new year, OSR sets out our view on what is needed to advance data sharing, access and linkage across government, to ensure opportunities to enhance the public good of data and statistics are more fully realised.
The UK Statistics Authority is responsible for ensuring that official statistics serve the public good. To deliver this responsibility, it has two executive offices: the Office for National Statistics, which is the UK’s national statistical institute and produces many of the key statistics for the public and decision makers, including statistics on the economy, population […]
Embedding transparency in the use and release of statistics and data We want the government to bolster public confidence in the use of analytical evidence across government by adopting an open, clear and accessible approach by default to the release and use of data and statistics. We call this approach intelligent transparency. It requires statistical […]
Since the start of the 2024 UK general election campaign, we have received several cases regarding the presentation of political support statistics in election campaign material – in particular, the use of bar charts in leaflets. As the regulator for official statistics, our role is to support confidence in statistics published by government bodies. Data on the size […]
On Tuesday 4 June, the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority Sir Robert Chote wrote to leaders of political parties to ask that their parties and candidates use statistics appropriately and transparently. When political parties make high profile numerical claims about their policies, or those of their opponents, they should follow the principles of what we […]
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) would like to see greater transparency and clarity around statistics relating to UK asset freeze targets under the Russia regulations. There is considerable media and public interest in the effectiveness of UK asset freeze targets under the Russia regulations. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is the Government department […]
An OSR statement setting out what an economic migrant is and what the available data tells us about migrants arriving in small boats.
The Office for Statistics Regulation statement on the difference between figures related to asylum and resettlement when talking about statistics around refugees.
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) recognises the extraordinary efforts that statisticians have made over the past year to get relevant and timely data into the public domain and the role this has played in meeting the challenges posed by the pandemic. This note builds on the expectations we have previously set out on publication […]
Yesterday, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation that change pre-release access arrangements to official statistics produced by the Scottish Government. The Office for Statistics Regulation’s Director General previously set out the case for greater restrictions on pre-release access when he gave evidence to the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee on Scottish economic data. Ed Humpherson, […]
