Our performance
How statistics are produced
Delivery of the key commitments set out in our 2022/23 Business Plan.
How statistics are produced: We uphold trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics and data used as evidence
2022/23 Highlights
- We confirmed National Statistics designation for the 2021 Census in Northern Ireland and the 2021 Census in England and Wales (May/June 2022)
- Institute Of Chartered Accountants In England And Wales published an Insights podcast with our Director General for Regulation about the importance of data for the Levelling Up agenda. (May 2022)
- The Government Analysis Function published its Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP) strategy, drawing on our 2021 RAP report and addressing our recommendation for a system-wide strategic direction for RAP.
- We published findings of our assessment of Key Stage 4 performance statistics for England, produced by Department for Education, identifying a range of strengths but requiring improvement in how the statistics are presented and explained (July 2022)
- Our State of the Statistical System 2021/22 report drew together the findings from our regulatory work to celebrate where the system consistently performs well and highlight areas for improvement – over 100 people attended the launch event. (July 2022)
- We published Guidance for Models on how the principles in the Code of Practice can help in designing, developing and using models to improve their Trustworthiness, Quality and Value (TQV) (August 2022)
- In our follow up to our lessons learned for health and social care statistics from the COVID-19 pandemic we identified four areas which support the production of statistics which serve the public good (November 2022)
- Our Head of Development and Impact explored in a blog ways the Code of Practice for Statistics can assist producers of statistics and analysis increase their efficiency while facing pressure on resources. (November 2022)
- Our Review of Excess Deaths Reporting identified recommendations for improvements to support users. (February 2023)
- In Quality and statistics: an OSR perspective we set out how we think about quality, the challenges producers face when communicating quality, and the environment and behaviours within organisations that support quality. (February 2023)
Outputs – Year ending 31 March 2023
9 reports published 10 closed (an assessment is closed once we have reached a final decision on designation; the publication of the assessment report is an interim stage). 12 designations, of which: 3 confirmations of existing statistics and 9 new. National Statistics status was temporarily suspended for 6 sets of statistics at the request of producers. 38 closed 8 reviews publishedAssessment reports:
Assessments closed:
Designations as National Statistics:
De-designations:
Compliance checks and rapid reviews:
Strategic reviews including systemic reviews:
Outcomes
This year we’ve demonstrated an increased maturity in adapting in-year the program that we specified at the start of the year to be demonstrably more focused on the really key issues. For example: Other key topics covered have included: fuel poverty, covid infection survey, modern slavery, LFS transformation, regional GDP.
Focus on regulatory projects which are best placed to improve understanding and support society’s information needs.
Fully delivered:
Highlight potential for, and positive examples of, data sharing and linkage in regulatory work.
Fully delivered:
Data sharing and linkage has become more embedded as a standard consideration in each of our regulatory projects and we have both championed and challenged producers. Key examples include: considering BEIS’ alternate ways to use wide range of data in fuel poverty statistics; engaging with ONS on new data sources for inflation measures; promoting benefits of merging data in production of Key Stage 4 statistics, and DfE’s onward sharing of data for analysis; assessment of Scottish Census drawing out aspects of using alternative administrative sources; recognition of effective data sharing as part of compliance check of Welsh school workforce statistics.
Use regulatory work to affect wider improvements, drawing insights from regulatory outputs to drive improvement across the statistical system and beyond.
Fully delivered:
Our work on Intelligent Transparency, Uncertainty, the role of Evaluation in Policy, and State of the Statistics System (SoSS) report have resonated and informed improvements by producers. We need to do more to capitalise on SoSS in 2023/24 and the project team is already well established to deliver this, informed by our Insight Committee (advisory group of producers). OSR’s international reach has also grown this year with requests to share our team’s expertise, for example, around the Code and Analytical Leadership.
How statistics are used
How statistics are used: We protect the role of statistics in public debate
2022/23 Highlights
- We wrote to Department for Education (DfE) about concerns with the evidence document that was being used for a White Paper on trust-led school systems. DfE published additional data and further methodological details in support of the new analysis presented in the White Paper annex. (May 2022)
- We published Intelligent Transparency FAQs in support of our regulatory guidance on for the transparent release and use of statistics and data (September 2022)
- Ensuring that uncertainty around estimates is communicated well is an important part of ensuring the appropriate use and interpretation of statistics. We shared our initial findings on approaches to presenting uncertainty in the statistical system (September 2022)
- We published our Annual Review of UK Statistics Authority casework in 2021/22 (October 2022)
- We wrote publicly to the Home Office Permanent Secretary on a number of concerns we had about the transparency of Home Office statistics and followed up these interventions with meetings with the Permanent Secretary, Chief Scientific Advisor, and senior analysts in the Department to secure commitments to improved data practices. (November 2022)
- Our think piece Statistical Literacy – it’s all in the communication and the accompanying research review cemented our position that how information is communicated is very important. (February 2023)
Outputs – Year ending 31 March 2023
372 – compares with 241 the previous year (included in this number are 187 duplicate cases opened with us and managed together from June-September 2022, concerning a twitter campaign on a BEIS consultation about weights and measures). 27 – compares with 11 the previous year (the increase in the median time to close a case from 11 days in 2021/22 to 27 days in 2022/23 largely reflects the more varied case topic areas that we dealt with. With COVID-19 we could often reuse or update responses to previous cases, with the more varied case load we have to build knowledge afresh. The high number of duplicate cases for the BEIS consultation also impacted the median time to close a case). 26 – compares with 20 the previous year. 10 (equal to the previous year).Cases opened:
Time to close a case (days – median):
Time to close a case (days – mean):
Cases still open at year end:
Outcomes
Improve our understanding of how public consume information.
Partially delivered:
Through the year, we have gleaned some direct insight into how the public find and consume information from the survey of Public Confidence in Official Statistics. We published our first specific reports on the topic of Statistical Literacy and made recommendations on how to improve communication. We have also steadily built our knowledge of work going on outside of OSR, which focusses on public understanding and trust in statistics, such as by ESCoE and the Winton Centre. We are scoping research work on how the public use statistics for 2023/24.
Intervene where there is greatest potential for misunderstanding and misuse.
Fully delivered:
We have shown that we are more than willing to step in publicly when we have concerns. We have also written and published statements on a number of high-profile topics such as the ONS excess death reporting, the differences between an asylum seeker and migrant, and financial sanctions after the Russian invasion on Ukraine.
Make statements about data sharing and its contribution to public debate.
Partially delivered:
We are preparing a report into data sharing and linkage across the public sector for publication in early Summer 2023.
Consolidate our position to support any public use of data and analysis by UK governments. Focus on system-wide change.
Fully delivered:
We have had great engagement from the analytical community and other stakeholders around our work on uncertainty and intelligent transparency. We have hosted several successful analytical seminars, bringing together analysts from different areas to discuss topics such as RAP, data linkage, uncertainty, and intelligent transparency. These sessions were well attended with over 150 attendees at each session and 450 attendees at our RAP session.
How statistics are valued
How statistics are valued: We develop a better understanding of the public good of statistics
2022/23 highlights
- In a blog Exploring the value of statistics for the public we explore the findings of the Public Confidence in Official Statistics (PCOS) survey. (April 2022)
- Our policy for granting alternative release times in line with the Code supported producers having some flexibility in the timing of the release of statistics where that would enable the statistics to better serve the public good. (May 2022)
- Championing a statistical system that serves the public good: Sir Robert reflects on the State of the Statistics System report (July 2022)
- Our regulators blog about the role of statistics in the Cost of Living Crisis debate. (July 2022)
- ADR UK and OSR, supported by independent researchers Kohlrabi Consulting, undertook a deliberative dialogue exploring public perceptions of ‘public good’ use of data for research and statistics, engaging 68 members of the public in a series of UK-wide deliberative workshops (September 2022)
Outputs
Our National Statistics designation refresh project has developed and tested ways to reframe the designation to enable clearer messaging and the greater accountability in the production of official statistics – the recommendations have been submitted to the Authority Board in May 2023. We are piloting material to support producers to effectively communicate quality and to develop a ‘Code culture’, and we are refreshing our assessment process.
Outcomes
Understand what “public good” looks like.
Fully delivered:
We have taken big steps in developing our understanding of public good of statistics. We are now finalising a first-draft definition of the public good provided by statistics.
Develop OSR work to identify and evaluate our impact.
Partially delivered:
We are at the stage where we have gathered a lot of evidence of impact but more robust recording systems will improve confidence that we are capturing and capitalising effectively the knowledge we have. We have made gains this year in respect of the OSR culture around identification and evaluation of our outcomes and impact. We are in the final build phase of our new workflow system which will pose questions from 2023/24 at scoping and initiation of how outcomes and impacts will be measured and evaluated, with reporting at closure. We made good headway in developing an organisational Theory of Change in the first part of the year but that work has developed more slowly, reflecting limited resources. Our new Insight and Evaluation Manager is now in place and structuring our evidence base for evaluation.
Understand value of data linkage and sharing and share this within and beyond OSR.
Partially delivered:
As part of the data sharing and linkage review, we have engaged with a wide number of stakeholders. We will be following the publication of our report in Summer 2023 to engage and share what we have learned with our regulators and the statistical system.
Improve understanding of our impact and influence.
Partially delivered:
We have used social media metrics (Twitter and LinkedIn) to identify the audience that our work reaches. We have also seen our public good work referenced in the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Data Strategy, and voluntary adoption recommended for charities in the recent Pro Bono Economics report on civil society.
Encourage voluntary adoption of the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Fully delivered:
Awareness and support for voluntary adoption seems to be steadily gathering momentum. We have launched the 2023 TQV award and we continue to support analysts in adopting TQV, giving advice to new organisations considering adoption. We most recently added Fable Data – a private company – to the VA list.
Use our understanding of public good to influence beyond official statistics.
Fully delivered:
We have been accepted to two conferences (PERITIA conference on policy, expertise and trust as well as International Statistical Institute world conference), allowing us to widely spread our message about the public good. We also organised a government analysts event on the public good with speakers including the National Data Guardian and Data Science Campus.