Introduction

1.1 The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 (“the Act”) requires public bodies in Wales to think about the long-term impact of their decisions, to work better with people, communities and each other, and to prevent persistent problems such as poverty, health inequalities and climate change. Part of this legislation requires Welsh Ministers to publish national well-being indicators and an annual well-being report. Following the enactment of this legislation, the Welsh Government developed a suite of outputs comprising an annual Wellbeing of Wales report published alongside an indicator dashboard.

1.2 The report presents an update on progress made toward the achievement of the seven well-being goals drawing on statistics that represent 50 national indicators, along with other relevant data.

1.3 OSR began its assessment of the statistics in 2018 against the Code of Practice for Statistics. We published interim findings in 2019, where our primary concern was regarding wider engagement to known and potential users, to help understand the range of users and their needs. Our assessment was additionally paused during the Covid-19 pandemic. In response to our initial findings, we found that the statistics team has made substantial steps to engage users to understand their needs.

1.4 Through the developments made to the statistics over the last few years, and in requesting this assessment, the Welsh Government statistics team has demonstrated a strong commitment to the standards required of the Code of Practice. We judge that the suite comprising the statistical report and the dashboard of detailed data meets the standards of the Code and can therefore be designated National Statistics.