Reviews and reports

  5. Reproducible Analytical Pipelines: Overcoming barriers to adoption

    Executive Summary Introduction to the review Official statistics produced by governments should uphold the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in order to serve the public good. In 2017 we championed the Reproducible Analytical Pipeline (RAP), a new way of producing official statistics developed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the […]

  6. Ensuring statistical models command public confidence

    Learning lessons from the approach to developing models for awarding grades in the UK in 2020 Executive Summary Purpose of this report In March 2020 the ministers with responsibility for education in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland announced the closure of schools as part of the UK’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. Further government […]

  7. Statistical leadership: Making analytical insight count

    Executive Summary This report sets out the findings from our review of statistical leadership. It looks at how statistical leadership can be strengthened across government. Strong statistical leadership is essential to ensuring statistics serve the public good. Many decisions draw on statistics published by governments across the UK. Successful implementation of government policies can be […]

  8. Assessment Report: Benefit statistics

    This assessment report was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen dramatic shocks to the labour market and placed increased pressure on the welfare system. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has continued to produce its statistics despite significant resource pressures, and we highlight the impact of COVID-19 on these statistics where relevant […]

  9. Assessment Report: Statistics on Prescription Cost Analysis: England

    In 2020, we fully assessed the NHS Business Service Authority’s (NHSBSA) Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA): England statistics against the Code of Practice for Statistics. NHSBSA are a new official statistics producer and this assessment was prompted due to a change in publication ownership from NHS Digital to NHSBSA. Key Findings The PCA is a valued, long-standing and trusted […]

  10. Assessment Report: Estimates of Station Usage (produced by the Office of Rail and Road)

    Judgement on National Statistics Status Estimates of station usage provide a valuable, trusted source of information about the use of the rail network across Great Britain (GB). They are used by a broad range of people, who appreciate the granularity of the data and the ability to use these statistics for further analysis. We identified […]

    Decorative image - rail station UK