Office for National Statistics

  1. Robert Kent-Smith to Liz McKeown and Alex Lambert: labour force survey transformation

    Sent from: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Sent to: Office for National Statistics

    Dear Liz and Alex  Today, we have published an update report about how ONS is improving the Labour Force Survey and progressing its transformation. This current report reflects on ONS’s progress so far and brings together feedback shared by users in autumn 2025 and spring 2026.   ONS has fully met four of the twelve recommendations from our 2025 update report, and has partially met the remaining eight, as detailed in […]

  2. Mary Gregory to Ed Humpherson: Update to ONS’s Long-term international migration estimates

    Sent from: Office for National Statistics

    Sent to: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Dear Ed, I am writing to you with an update on how we have developed long-term international migration estimates since the last OSR progress report in December 2023. There has been considerable improvement to the output, and this work is continuing. Our International migration research, progress update, published today, provides an update on the research underway that will […]

  3. Liz McKeown and Sarah Henry to Rob Kent-Smith: Review of ONS’s Treatment of Seasonality in Quarterly GDP statistics

    Sent from: Office for National Statistics

    Sent to: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Dear Rob, Thank you for your letter of 17th March outlining the findings and recommendations of your recent ‘Review of ONS’s Treatment of Seasonality in quarterly GDP’ and for your team’s engagement with ours throughout the review period. We welcome the review’s conclusion that ‘ONS has followed internationally recognised best practice in its approach to […]

  4. Rob Kent-Smith to Liz McKeown and Sarah Henry: Review of ONS’s Treatment of Seasonality in Quarterly GDP statistics

    Sent from: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Sent to: Office for National Statistics

    Dear Liz and Sarah Today we published our Review of ONS’s Treatment of Seasonality in quarterly GDP. This review was prompted by concerns from some users, and media commentators, about the effectiveness of seasonal adjustment in the post pandemic period. In recent years, quarterly (and monthly) GDP statistics published by ONS have shown stronger growth in the first half […]

  5. Ed Humpherson to Mary Gregory: Response to ONS plans for mid-year population estimates

    Sent from: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Sent to: Office for National Statistics

    Dear Mary, Thank you for your letter of 4 March 2026 setting out the Office for National Statistics (ONS)’s revised plans for the production of mid-year population estimates for England and Wales. We note that the requirements and recommendations from our assessment of admin-based population estimates for England and Wales have helped ONS consider its […]

  6. Ed Humpherson to Rachel Skentelbery: Alternative Release Time for all future UK Economic Accounts (UKEA) publications

    Sent from: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Sent to: Office for National Statistics

    Dear Rachel, Thank you for your letter requesting an alternative release time for future publications of the UK Economic Accounts (UKEA) datasets. We understand that the current arrangements involve releasing aggregated data at 07:00 as part of the Balance of Payments and Sector Accounts publications. We also recognise that users have expressed a clear and increasing demand for timely access to the country level breakdowns […]

  7. Rachel Skentelbery to Ed Humpherson: Alternative Release Time for all future UK Economic Accounts (UKEA) publications

    Sent from: Office for National Statistics

    Sent to: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Dear Ed,  I am writing to formally request an alternative release time for all future releases of UKEA datasets.   The UKEA dataset provides a further breakdown of other datasets published at 7:00am in our Balance of Payments and Sector Accounts publications. Within these further breakdowns are country levels, which have been a focus for some users recently. Releasing these data at the same time as the main releases would give […]

  8. Mary Gregory to Ed Humpherson: Plans for mid-year population estimates

    Sent from: Office for National Statistics

    Sent to: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Dear Ed, We are writing to update you on our plans for improving how we produce population estimates for England and Wales. Firstly, we would like to thank the Office for Statistics Regulation for its 2024 assessment on our Admin based Population estimates, and the team’s continued engagement over the past 18 months. The requirements […]

  9. Rob Kent-Smith to Alex Lambert and Liz McKeown: Family Spending statistics

    Sent from: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Sent to: Office for National Statistics

    Dear Liz and Alex Today, we have published a review of the latest Family Spending statistics from the Living Costs and Food survey (LCF) against key elements of the Code of Practice for Statistics. We previously set out an intention to undertake further regulatory work on response issues impacting household surveys used across the statistics […]

  10. Alex Lambert and Liz McKeown to Rob Kent-Smith: Family Spending

    Sent from: Office for National Statistics

    Sent to: Office for Statistics Regulation

    Dear Rob, Thank you for your letter of 10 February regarding the publication of the report covering your recent review of Family Spending statistics from the Living Costs and Food (LCF) Survey. We welcome both the publication of the review and its conclusion that Family Spending in the UK can continue to be published as […]