The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has published its response here to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) second quarterly update on progress with economic statistics.
The latest update demonstrates genuine and welcome progress since the first update was published in December 2025. We appreciate the scale of organisational change that ONS has been managing – including leadership transitions, recruitment pressures and a reset of prioritisation and delivery. It is understandable that the organisation remains in a transitional state, and it is positive to see signs of stabilisation, greater transparency, stronger governance and more proactive engagement with users. We welcome ONS’s direct responses to our previous recommendations.
However, critical challenges and risks remain, and are transparently acknowledged by ONS, particularly in respect of sustaining quality, delivering the Transformed Labour Force Survey, implementing the new Statistical Business Register, and fully recovering response rates across social surveys.
These ongoing risks and challenges are reflected in the delivery of milestones, with over one quarter of the milestones scheduled for delivery in 2025/26 being delayed. This may indicate that the original plans for economic statistics were in part over-ambitious and unrealistic.
We support the direction of travel at the ONS, including the setting up of a waiting room to protect delivery confidence in what matters most. We encourage ONS, through ongoing business planning, to set a realistic plan as a baseline that reflects true organisational capacity, provides a credible trajectory and strengthens confidence among both staff and users.
Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation, said:
“This update reflects meaningful progress by ONS during a period of significant transition. We welcome the increased transparency, stronger governance and more proactive engagement with users, which provide a strong basis for rebuilding confidence.”
“But important challenges still lie ahead. Turning progress into sustained improvement will require a realistic plan, grounded in organisational capacity, that clearly prioritises delivery of core statistics and key transformations. Getting this right will be essential for maintaining confidence among users.”
See the full report on progress with economic statistics, April 2026: OSR response here.
Notes to editors
- Here is OSR’s final economics statistics report published in November 2025. This followed the initial review published in April 2025.
- Here is ONS’s strategic improvement update.
- The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK, and aims to enhance public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics produced by government. OSR regulates statistics by setting the standards official statistics must meet in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We ensure that producers of official statistics uphold these standards by conducting assessments against the Code. Those which meet the standards are given accredited official statistics status, indicating that they meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and value. We also report publicly on systemwide issues and on the way that statistics are being used, celebrating when the standards are upheld and challenging publicly when they are not. OSR is independent from government ministers, and separate from producers of statistics, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
- OSR’s Director General, Ed Humpherson, reports directly to the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority Board. The Director General, and OSR, have wide discretion in highlighting good practice and reporting concerns with the production and use of statistics publicly. OSR’s work is overseen by the Board’s regulation committee (made up of non-executive directors, and with no statistical producer in attendance). OSR’s budget is proposed by the Board’s regulation committee and endorsed by the Board.
For media enquiries, please email regulation@statistics.gov.uk.
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