L. Meeting user needs and supporting their understanding
L. ONS should engage with a wide range of users to ensure the estimates available will meet the needs of a variety of users. It should also be clear on what the statistics can and cannot be used for and any decisions it has had to make based on the availability, strengths and limitations of the underpinning data which impact on use.
Actions taken and commitments made by ONS to meet the recommendation
ONS engages with and actively seeks feedback from a wide range of users in a variety of settings.
The migration team at ONS is also receiving user feedback as part of the future of population and migration statistics consultation which closed on 26 October 2023.
In May 2023 ONS published Admin-based long-term international migration estimates QMI which sets out uses of the statistics along with strengths and limitations in a non-technical way.
OSR’s evaluation of evidence
ONS has improved its user engagement. Given the high profile of migration statistics, it is important that ONS continues to improve its engagement with users in an open and transparent way to feed into the transformation process and ensure the statistics are meeting user needs.
The QMI also provides users with non-technical strengths and limitations information to support users’ understanding of appropriate uses of the statistics.