Introduction
What we do
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.
We are the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), being independent from government ministers and separate from producers of statistics, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
We set the standards that 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. Statistics 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.
Our governance
Our Director General reports directly to the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority.
OSR’s strategy and business plans are agreed by the Regulation Committee. The Committee recommends OSR’s plans and budgets for approval by the main Authority Board. In October 2024, OSR published a statement which set out clearly and transparently how OSR’s separation from ONS is achieved in practice.
OSR is accountable, through UKSA, to the parliaments of the UK. Most recently, in July 2024, the Director General appeared as a witness at two evidence sessions held by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee of the House of Commons.
This plan
This year’s business plan focuses on what we aim to achieve in the period January 2026 to March 2027 (hereafter referred to as 2026/27), and how our work will contribute to delivering the OSR strategy: How we will strengthen trust and confidence in statistics: 2026–2029.
We intentionally retain flexibility in our programme to allow us to respond to changes in the external environment. We publish a Rolling Regulatory Work Programme, updated quarterly, that outlines the status of our priority projects.
Evaluation
We will publish an OSR evaluation strategy in April 2026, which will set out how we will evaluate our performance and our impact. We will develop measures grounded in a Theory of Change for each of the four strategic themes within our OSR strategy.
Our vision
Our vision endures:
Statistics should serve the public good
What do we mean by serving the public good? Statistics serve the public good when they are public assets that provide insight, which allows them to be used widely for informing understanding and shaping action.
Statistics published by public sector bodies should be produced in a trustworthy way, be of high quality and provide value by answering people’s questions. In this way, they promote accountability, help people make choices and inform policy.
Statistics should therefore serve a wide range of users. When they meet the needs of these users, they serve the public good. But they do not always fulfil these ambitions. The value of statistics can be harmed through poor production, a lack of relevance or coherence, and through misuse. It is our role as a regulator to minimise these problems.
Plan-on-a-page 2026/27
Statistics should serve the public good
Credible and Rigorous Regulator – Making clear and strongly communicated judgements against the Code
We will provide clear, well‑evidenced judgements against the Code of Practice and ensure producers act on our requirements. In 2026/27 we will:
- Focus reviews on areas of greatest public interest and data quality risk.
- Follow up on key requirements from recent regulatory work.
- Implement a new prioritisation and triage approach for older, unreviewed statistics.
- Develop self‑evaluation tools for producers, including an updated review model and automated TQV checklist.
- Promote public engagement to strengthen transparency and trust in statistics.
System Catalyst
We will drive systemwide improvement by identifying cross‑cutting issues and supporting better, more-responsive statistics. In 2026/27 we will:
- Deliver targeted systemic and topic‑based reviews – for example, on water quality – and undertake risk‑based cross‑cutting reviews.
- Follow up on major recommendations and support producers to embed Code 3.0 and the Standards for Public Use.
Public Use of Statistics
We will champion the transparent and appropriate use of statistics in the public domain, stepping in where necessary to uphold the Standards for Public Use. In 2026/27 we will:
- Challenge the public misuse of statistics through our interventions.
- Promote and embed the Standards for Public Use through a continuous campaign and targeted support.
- Explore new regulatory approaches, including automation, to monitor compliance.
- Deliver research on trust, public value and the role of official statistics to strengthen public confidence.
Enhance our own TQV
We will maintain our independence, quality culture and public value by embedding TQV across our operations. In 2026/27 we will:
- Develop a framework for impartiality and independence
- Launch a refreshed People Plan with refreshed induction and training.
- Continue to define our voice, broaden stakeholder engagement, enhance the accessibility of our outputs and digital channels, and explore automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency and impact.
- Develop an evaluation strategy, efficiency framework and register of recommendations.
2025/26: The story so far
We will publish our annual report for 2025/26 in July 2026. Here, we review our work over the period since April 2025.
2025/2026 has been a pivotal year. We have put in place key building blocks that will serve the statistical system well in the next few years. It has also been a year of significant challenge for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as we set out below.
In November 2025, we published our refreshed Code of Practice for Statistics (Code 3.0). Code 3.0 builds on and strengthens our expectations for the production, dissemination and onward communication of high-quality statistics.
The principles of intelligent transparency feature prominently in the refreshed Code, being embedded in the new Standards for the Public Use of Statistics, Data and Wider Analysis. As a response to the challenge of misinformation and disinformation, intelligent transparency ensures that high-quality statistics and related information are easily accessible and communicated well by government bodies. We published our Intelligent transparency: 2025 review, which looks at how well intelligent transparency is embedded across the UK – and how much further there is to go.
Our State of the UK Statistical System 2025 report reflects our views on the current performance of the UK statistical system. The 2025 report was published during a time of unprecedented scrutiny and challenge for ONS and the UK Statistics Authority.
We conducted a systemic review of ONS’s economic statistics, which identifies, and responds to, high-level, cross-cutting issues and concerns covering data sources for economic statistics, stakeholder needs and engagement, and related organisational issues. We set out initial findings and immediate requirements in our interim report published in April 2025. In our final report, published in November 2025, we reported on ONS’s progress to date and our plans for regulating its economic statistics to provide assurance on continued progress.
Our review of the adequacy of UK-wide comparable statistics and data provides a framework that will help the UK statistical system address the demand for UK-wide comparable statistics and data on priority topics.
What we want to achieve in 2026/27
The publication of our strategy for 2026–2029 was the culmination of a year of engagement and reflection with our stakeholders, the public and our team. It sets out four strategic themes:
- Credible and Rigorous Regulator
- System Catalyst
- Public Use of Statistics
- Enhance Our Own TQV
For each theme, we summarise here our priorities for year one of the strategy.
Credible and Rigorous Regulator
Strategic aim: We will be a credible and rigorous regulator, making clear and strongly communicated judgements against the Code, ensuring that statistics producers implement our requirements.
Impact: Users will understand the strengths and limitations of statistics; producers will be open and focus on improvement.
2026/27 priorities – What we will deliver:
- Compliance reviews (of accredited official statistics and official statistics):
- New reviews informed by public interest and data quality risk – for example: HMRC review; recorded crime in Scotland; adult social care statistics in England
- Follow up of requirements and recommendations on reviews that we have completed
- Developing and delivering an approach to prioritising and triaging the backlog of accredited official statistics that we have not reviewed for some time. This includes the delivery of a full-scale pilot prioritisation tool, embedding an approach enabling producers to self-evaluate their statistics against the Code and continuing to improve our compliance review tool.
Reduce the risk that may arise from the backlog of unreviewed accredited official statistics
In our 2026–2029 strategy, we have highlighted the need to implement proportionate approaches to regulation, allowing for both in-depth and lighter-touch reviews, while maintaining high standards. We are a small organisation working with limited resources, and expectations against our remit are only increasing. This means that while we must prioritise which statistics we review, we are building a backlog of accredited official statistics that we have not been able to review in some time, which inevitably comes with risk attached.
As such, we will work with statistical producers to identify, of those statistics that we have not reviewed for some time, which are the highest priority. In 2026/27, we will develop and pilot a new prioritisation tool and a risk-based approach that will build producer self-evaluation into our regulatory model. We are exploring approaches that will allow us to review sensible clusters of statistics to allow us to make quick progress and provide ‘triage’ for identifying where deeper dives are needed.
System Catalyst
Strategic aim: We will be a system catalyst, identifying key cross-cutting issues to drive improvement, ensuring that statistics meet user needs in a resource-constrained world.
Impact: The risks and opportunities facing the system will be clearer to users and producers, and we will support positive change across the system.
2026/27 priorities – What we will deliver:
- Systemic reviews
- New topic-based reviews, including on water quality and pollution and user engagement in producing economic statistics
- New cross-cutting reviews
- Follow up of requirements and recommendations from topic-based and cross-cutting reviews
- A review of steps across the statistical system to improve the quality of household social surveys
- Refresh OSR’s guidance on statistical models for recent AI developments
- Our State of the Statistical System Report
State of the Statistical System report
In 2026 we will continue to deliver our annual State of the UK Statistical System report, providing an independent assessment of performance, challenges and strengths across the statistical landscape. Building on our 2025 findings and our ongoing work as the UK’s statistical regulator, the report will offer a transparent view of risks, highlight progress and innovation, and set out recommendations to help strengthen the quality and integrity of, and public confidence in, official statistics.
We will engage with the statistical system to assess how recommendations from 2025 are being progressed. We will also be exploring how to evolve the annual reporting model to support an improved continuous dialogue.
Public Use of Statistics
Strategic aim: We will champion public use of statistics, standing up for the appropriate use of statistics in the public domain – stepping in where we have concerns, and forming partnerships with key actors who support the integrity of evidence more broadly.
Impact: Statistics will be used transparently in a way that is intelligible to users – that is, in line with the Standards for the Public Use of Statistics, Data and Wider Analysis in the Code. And we will work with a range of other bodies to address broader issues of public use of evidence.
2026/27 priorities – What we will deliver:
- Challenge the public misuse of statistics through our interventions
- Publish our annual casework report
- A continuous campaign to promote and embed the Standards for Public Use across different professions and the public sector
- Continue to explore approaches to monitoring compliance with the standards, building on our 2025 review of intelligent transparency
- We continue to deliver our research programme, with priorities including:
- Driving trust in official statistics
- Refreshing our definition of the public good of official statistics
- Understanding the unique value of official statistics
- Using public perspectives to build confidence in official statistics
- Expand partnerships and strengthen feedback loops to amplify our voice
- Embedding Code 3.0: Support implementation of Code 3.0 by producers, including embedding the Standards for Public Use
Support and embed the Standards for Public Use, including during the Welsh and Scottish elections
In the coming year, we will monitor progress against the recommendations made in our 2025 intelligent transparency review and continue to deal with issues relating to transparency through our casework. We will continue to support public bodies to comply with the Standards for the Public Use of Statistics, Data and Wider Analysis by delivering training and targeted support and highlighting areas of good practice. We are also exploring ways in we can proactively and systematically monitor compliance with the new standards, for example through public report cards.
The Scottish Parliament and Senedd (Welsh Parliament) elections are scheduled for May 2026. We will be looking to those involved to demonstrate their commitment in ensuring the appropriate and transparent use of statistics during the election campaigns.
Embed Code 3.0 across the statistical system
We launched the Code of Practice for Statistics 3.0 in November 2025. In the coming year, we want to see active application of the Code across the statistics system evidenced in our compliance and systemic reviews. We will promote Code-compliant behaviours through an extended learning offer across all its audiences. This will build on the initial material at the launch of Code 3.0 and include online learning resources and virtual workshops for official statistics analysts and the TQV community of practice, as well as for OSR regulators.
We will focus on promoting self-evaluation – supporting the application of our TQV self-evaluation tool and producers’ preparation of statements of compliance, along with strategic application of the Code by statistics leaders.
Enhance Our Own TQV
Strategic aim: As a regulator, OSR must exemplify the standards that we expect of others. Focusing on our own TQV not only shows us practicing what we preach but also provides a framework to underpin our own organisational ambition. It includes maintaining our independence and separation from producers of statistics (T); enhancing our capability, processes and quality culture (Q); and increasing the effectiveness of our public engagement and how we measure and enhance our impact (V).
Impact: Enhancing our own TQV is a strategic priority. It ensures that we remain a credible, capable and responsive regulator – one that not only holds others to account but is also accountable to others. By embedding TQV in our culture and operations, we strengthen our ability to deliver meaningful change and uphold the role of statistics in public life.
2026/27 priorities – What we will deliver:
- Trustworthiness: Develop and deliver a framework for impartiality and independence
- Quality: Develop and launch a revised OSR people plan – with a focus on refreshed induction and training, embed our capability framework and maintaining a guidance catalogue
- Value: Undertake work to define the voice that OSR takes in our published work, ensuring it is consistent with both our values and our new strategy
- Impact: Develop the OSR evaluation strategy, deliver an OSR efficiency framework and measurement; publish a live register of OSR recommendations; and strengthen feedback loops with producers and users
Our structure
Resources
Our baseline budget for 2026/27 is £4 million. This is an increase of £0.6 million compared with the previous year and represents additional funding approved by the UK Statistics Authority Board in July 2025, following the conclusion of the Spending Review 2025. The additional funding allows us to recruit an additional six SEO/HEO Statistics Regulators across our domains – to strengthen our capacity to reduce the backlog of accredited official statistics that have not been reviewed for some time – and an SEO Statistical Standards Advisor and SEO Data Scientist.
Our organisation
Our team of 52 (full-time equivalent, FTE) is based at sites in London, Newport, Edinburgh, Manchester and Darlington.
Director General and Senior Leadership Team (5.3 FTE)
Statistic Regulators (Domains and Cross-Cutting team) (29.7 FTE)
Development Functions (8 FTE) Support Functions (9.3 FTE)
Senior leadership Team
OSR is led by the Director General, Ed Humpherson. The leadership team includes:
Deputy Head – Rob Kent-Smith. Drives OSR’s development as a regulator, focusing on strategy, capability and impact.
Assessment Programme Lead – Siobhan Tuohy-Smith. Also heads our Newport site and leads engagement in Wales.
Systemic Review Programme Lead – Gail Rankin. Also heads our Edinburgh site and leads engagement in Scotland.
Head of Casework – Elise Rohan. Leads the delivery of our casework programme and manages our Casework team and Regulatory Cross-Cutting team.
Head of Development and Impact – Helen Miller-Bakewell. Leads the Research, Policy and Standards, and Data and Methods functions. Also heads our London site and leads on engagement in Northern Ireland.
Domains
We organise our core regulatory work around domains. Domains are thematic areas of public interest. There are currently six thematic domains:
- Crime, Education and Justice
- Economy, Business and Trade
- Housing, Environment, Agriculture and Transport
- Health and Social Care
- Labour Market and Welfare
- Population and Society
Our level of activity within, and focus on, domains vary depending on public interest, quality concerns and the level of innovation shown by the producers of statistics in each domain.
In 2025 we also created a new Cross-Cutting domain. This team leads on systemic issues and is crucial to our ability to drive system improvements.
Development functions
Our development functions ensure that we are continuously refreshing the foundations that underpin our work and keeping pace and contributing to new thinking in the world of statistics. Our development functions are:
- Policy and Standards: Responsible for the Code of Practice for Statistics and advocating for application of the Code, including voluntary application by a wide range of organisations producing statistics for the public – for example, universities, charities and local governments. The Code is the standard against which we form assessments, and the supporting guidance acts as a catalyst for system improvement.
- Data and Methods: Ensures that we are equipped to regulate in an evolving world and that we have the expertise to keep pace as well as thinking about how data science can improve efficiency in our operation.
- Research: Breaks new ground in our understanding of how statistics can serve the public good. The research team ensures we remain curious and innovative and that our regulatory model has strong foundations.
Support functions
Our support functions ensure that we operate with efficiency and impact:
- Communication and Engagement: Manages our communications, outreach and engagement with users and stakeholders, maximising our reach and impact.
- Private Office and Operations and Evaluation: Underpin our organisational effectiveness, ensuring our working is well managed. They also monitor and report on our impact and outcomes, including our progress against the commitments in this strategy.