Introduction

Our role, as Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), is to provide independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK, and aim to enhance public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics produced by government. For statistics to serve the public good, they should support democratic debate. This is particularly important during a general election campaign, when statistics play a role in informing decisions made by the electorate.

We have developed series of explainer statements, providing a summary of the available statistics and what to look out for in public statements, drawing from our experience of investigating the use of statistics on these topics. These ‘What to look out for’ statements are designed to support the public when hearing statistics used in public debate.