Regulatory Work Programme
Our published work programme (Excel) sets out planned projects for the coming year in detail. Our work ensures that the statistics serve the public good, in line with the core principles of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
See more about our regulatory approach and decision making.
To see upcoming projects in specific topic areas, please visit our domain pages.
Our regulatory tools
Compliance reviews (including assessment)
In accordance with the Statistics and Regulation Service Act 2007, OSR independently reviews whether official statistics comply with the principles of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value in the Code of Practice.
We do this through a tailored process called a compliance review, where were evaluate the extent to which official statistics meet the standards set out in the Code.
A compliance review is the umbrella term for a review of any official statistics against the Code carried out by OSR.
There are three types of compliance review:
1. Assessment: a review conducted when a producer has requested the accreditation of official statistics. Compliance with all standards and practices of the Code’s Standards for Official Statistics is reviewed. Assessment is the only tool that allows us to grant accredited official statistics status (called National Statistics in the Act).
2. Compliance review of existing accredited official statistics: a review conducted to check the statistics’ ongoing compliance with the Code. They often focus on a specific issue or part of the Code. They may lead to more-focused reviews if issues arise and could ultimately result in us deciding to remove the accreditation from the statistics.
3. Compliance review of official statistics: a review conducted to check the statistics’ ongoing compliance with Code, but where the outcome does not involve a decision on accreditation. Their main aim is to recommend improvements to the statistics. We may recommend that the producer seeks accreditation, but it is up to them to pursue accreditation separately via assessment.
See our accredited official statistics page for further information on accreditation, the list of accredited official statistics and the list of cancelled and suspended accreditations.
See our published assessment reports and published compliance reviews.
Systemic reviews
Systemic reviews are used when we want to improve the public value of a set of statistics or examine a cross-cutting statistical issue such as data linkage or classifications rather than an individual set of statistics. Examining issues across the statistics landscape allows us to influence how the statistics system responds collectively to maximise quality and public value.
We undertake such reviews where an accumulation of evidence indicates there might be issues around gaps, overlaps, coherence, accessibility and other system-level issues. We can also use systemic reviews to highlight good practice and innovation in elements of public value, with a view to sharing lessons across the system.
See our published systemic reviews and ongoing systemic reviews.
Casework
One of our key roles is to use our voice to stand up for statistics and to represent the public. We undertake monitoring to identify issues, reporting publicly where we have concerns and highlighting good practice where possible.
Casework is the tool that best allows us to be responsive and investigate issues quickly as they arise.