Annex 2: The Assessment Process

This Assessment was conducted from December 2020 to May 2021.

This report was prepared by the Office for Statistics Regulation and approved by the Regulation Committee on behalf of the Board of the UK Statistics Authority, based on the advice of the Director General for Regulation.

The regulatory team – Lewis Jack and David Ross – agreed the scope of and timetable for this assessment with Home Office in December 2020. Documentary evidence for the assessment was provided by Home Office in December 2020. Following a review of this evidence and after carrying out user engagement, the regulatory team met Home Office in February 2021 to discuss compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

A key part of the assessment was talking to people who use the statistics, to help us to understand the current value of the statistics, and where there is the potential to increase this. We approached known and potential users of these statistics and conducted 14 interviews. We also received written feedback on the statistics from several users.