Introduction
Foreword
This time last year, I reported to you about a small team delivering a high volume of outputs with an impressive range of outcomes. I also shared with you that we were ambitious to do more to support the public good of statistics by being more systemic and public-focused.
This year, the productivity of my team has continued to inspire me, but to achieve our ambitions, we have made a fundamental shift in how we operate. This report really demonstrates how we have moved away from delivering high volumes of small compliance checks against the Code to focus our resource on the big strategically important topics – for example, we have delivered a programme of assessments focused on the quality of economic statistics, and focusing on the transformation of the statistical system, including around population statistics.
We’ve made important interventions and shared a broad range of guidance and as we have pressed forwards with our Intelligent Transparency campaign, it has been very positive to see how well the messages are resonating with people.
Of course, shortly after the end of this financial year, the UK’s General Election campaign started. We continued to stand up for appropriate use of statistics during the campaign. In May, I set out the guidance and support available for navigating statistics during an election campaign and the expectations we have as the regulator for an open, clear, and accessible approach to the release and use of data and statistics. We also published a series of explainers on key topics that featured in election campaigns to support members of the public seeing data in debate, and made public statements on issues including the performance of schools, future tax rises, house building performance, and NHS waiting times. And we have brought together our Election work on an Election web page.
Looking to the future, we have a lot more we want to achieve – for example, continuing to advocate for data sharing and linkage. To get a good sense of where we want to see improvements from producers of statistics and data, I would encourage you to read our latest annual State of the Statistical System report alongside this report. This report will form a key input into the forthcoming Statistics Assembly, which was the main recommendation of the Lievesley review – a review which endorsed the role we play as statistics regulator and whose recommendations we warmly welcome. We look forward to implementing the recommendations of the Lievesley review, and to continuing to support the public’s right to have access to trustworthy, high quality, and valuable statistics.
Ed Humpherson, Director General, Office for Statistics Regulation
Our vision
Statistics should serve the public good.
What do we mean by serving the public good? Statistics published by public sector bodies should be produced in a trustworthy way, be of high quality and provide value by answering people’s questions. In this way, they promote accountability, help people make choices and inform policy.
Statistics are also part of the lifeblood of democratic debate.
Statistics should therefore serve a wide range of users. When they meet the needs of these users, they serve the public good. But they do not always fulfil these ambitions. Their value can be harmed through poor production, a lack of relevance and coherence and misuse.
It is our role as a regulator to minimise these problems. We have observed the increasing relevance of our Trustworthiness, Quality and Value approach to statistics regulation. By championing high standards, we uphold public confidence in statistics that serve the public good.
What we do
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK and aims to enhance public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics produced by government.
We are the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority, being independent from government ministers and separate from producers of statistics, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
We regulate by setting the standards that official statistics must meet in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We ensure that producers of official statistics uphold these standards by conducting assessments against the Code. Those statistics which meet the standards are given Accredited Official Statistics status, indicating that they meet the highest standards of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value. We also report publicly on systemwide issues and on the way that statistics are being used, celebrating when the standards are upheld and challenging publicly when they are not.
Longer-term outcomes that we seek
How statistics are produced
We uphold the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics and data used as evidence.
How statistics are used
We protect the role of statistics in public debate.
How statistics are valued
We develop a better understanding of the public good of statistics.
Our 2023/24 priorities (now extended into 2024/25)
Support and challenge producers to innovate, collaborate and build resilience
We will champion and support statistics producers to build on the innovation, collaboration and resilience they have displayed during the last few years. Our regulatory activities will see us promoting the sharing, linking and reuse of data. We will support statistics producers to maximise the value of their data and statistics through increased innovation and more collaboration. We will also focus on activities which will support statistics producers to develop and build resilience.
Champion the effective communication of statistics to support society’s key information needs
We will continue to champion the transparent release and use of data and statistics and argue for accurate and timely statistics to be available on the topics that matter most. Our regulatory activities will see us focus on how statistics producers communicate uncertainty, and how they mitigate and manage misuse of statistics and data. We will also focus our work on activities which support statistics producers to engage with, understand and meet the varying needs of a wide range of users of data and statistics.
Build partnerships to champion good practice principles for data and analysis that inform the public
We will continue our work with organisations and with teams within government departments, who are not official statistics producers, but who produce and communicate data and analysis that are used in the public domain. These types of data and analysis are often likely to be perceived and used by others as if they are official statistics. We will continue our engagement with data influencers and data users to support us with this focus.
Our governance
Our Director General reports directly to the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority. To ensure independence from ONS, the Director General Regulation has no reporting line to the National Statistician and is an Additional Accounting Officer with budgetary responsibility for the OSR.
OSR’s business plan is agreed by the Regulation Committee, which comprises the Director General, OSR and a number of Non-Executive Directors from the UK Statistics Authority. The Committee also commends a supporting budget for the delivery of the business plan to the Authority Board.
Drawing on our work as the UK’s statistics regulator, this report shares our views on the performance and challenges facing the statistical system, highlights areas of progress and innovation, and sets out our recommendations for advancing the system.
The State of the UK Statistical System
This annual report reflects on our performance as a regulator in 2023/24. Each year we also publish a more outward-focused report about the UK statistical system which we would encourage you to read to fully understand our work and our ambitions for the public good of statistics. The State of the Statistical System 2024 report will be published in July 2024.
Drawing on our work as the UK’s statistics regulator, the report shares our views on the performance and challenges facing the statistical system, highlights areas of progress and innovation, and sets out our recommendations for advancing the system. Key themes for 2024 include the demand for new statistics and insights; ensuring quality; improvement and innovation; and effective communication.
Our story of 2023/24 in numbers
Support and challenge producers to innovate, collaborate and build resilience
- 9 Assessment Reports published including a new series that focuses more intensively on the quality of economic statistics.
- 3 new accreditations of Official Statistics, 3 confirmations of accredited status and 1 reaccreditation. We also had 2 temporary suspensions of accreditation (1 now lifted).
- 18 Compliance Checks and Rapid Reviews delivered across the statistics system – for example, Winter Covid Infection Survey.
- 6 strategic reviews progressed on important topics including statistics on gender identity, international migration estimates and mental health statistics.
- We ran 18 events with over 1100 attendees (remote and in-person) from a range of audiences to inform our Review of the Code of Practice for Statistics. 51 organisations and individuals also responded to our call for evidence.
Champion the effective communication of statistics to support society’s key information needs
- 231 casework cases considered by OSR and the UK Statistics Authority.
- Just over half of cases were generated by members of the public. Parliament, media and academics engaged regularly with us and around a sixth of cases were generated internally.
- Of the 124 cases raised with us by members of the public, we recorded 38 as being duplicate concerns, relating to doctors pay, knife crime, the Asylum backlog, housing maladministration judgements and the report into the Tees Valley regeneration. There were also clusters of cases we recorded as individual concerns, as they raised unique concerns about the statistics despite the topic being consistent, these clusters related to 20Mph Limit introduction in Wales, the presentation of Council Tax increases, Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) impact reporting and the Census questions on Sex and Gender.
- Average time to close a case reduced compared with the previous year – median 14 days (-13) and mean 22 days (-4).
Build partnerships to champion good practice principles for data and analysis that inform the public
- 16 organisations (outside of official statistics producers) have now published statements of voluntary compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
- Our 4th annual award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality and Value given out, in partnership with the Royal Statistical Society – 2023 Award was to Fable Data for their Data for Good programme.
- 21 blogs published – including guest blogs – sharing insights to inspire good practice.
- 11 pieces of regulatory research, development and guidance published including our Areas of Research Interest and an update on Data Sharing and Linkage for the Public Good.