OSR’s role in the statistical system

OSR is part of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). The UKSA was established under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and is the statutory body responsible for the whole UK statistical system, including OSR and the Office for National Statistics.  

OSR is the regulatory arm of the UKSA. Our role, on the behalf of UKSA, is to ensure that statistics serve the public good by safeguarding the production and use of official statistics, so they can be trusted to support decisions that affect UK society. 

We have broad discretion in how we carry out this role. This includes maintaining a Code of Practice for Statistics and assessing official statistics against that code; investigating and publicly reporting concerns about statistics; and highlighting good practice across the statistical system. 

Although we operate as a separate body to the UKSA, we are formally accountable to it. OSR is led by our Director General, Ed Humpherson, who reports directly to the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority Board, rather than a departmental minister. OSR’s work and budget are overseen by the Board’s Regulation Committee, which is made up of non-executive directors, with no producers of official statistics in attendance.

Regulation Committee

OSR’s work and budget are overseen by the Regulation Committee of the UK Statistics Authority. The role of the Committee is to help shape OSR’s regulation strategy and work programme and to oversee the assessment of official statistics against the Code of Practice, and other work related to regulation. 

The Committee meets at least quarterly, in the absence of staff involved in the production of statistics, to safeguard the independence of regulatory decisions. 

Read more about the Committee, including the terms of reference, membership and meeting dates and minutes, on the UK Statistics Authority’s website.