Overall assessment

In its second update report, ONS acknowledges that many areas on which it reports it remains in transition. It states that it will report further developments in the next update, due in July 2026. We will then be in position to make a more comprehensive assessment of ONS’s progress.

The latest update demonstrates genuine and welcome progress since the first update was published in December 2025. We appreciate the scale of organisational change that ONS has been managing – including leadership transitions, recruitment pressures and a reset of prioritisation and delivery. It is understandable that the organisation remains in a transitional state, and it is positive to see signs of stabilisation, greater transparency, stronger governance and more proactive engagement with users. We welcome ONS’s direct responses to our previous recommendations.

However, critical challenges and risks remain, and are transparently acknowledged by ONS, particularly in respect of sustaining quality, delivering the Transformed Labour Force Survey, implementing the new Statistical Business Register, and fully recovering response rates across social surveys.

These ongoing risks and challenges are reflected in the delivery of milestones, with over one quarter of the milestones scheduled for delivery in 2025/26 being delayed. This may indicate that the original plans for economic statistics were in part over-ambitious and unrealistic.

We support the direction of travel at the ONS, including the setting up of a waiting room to protect delivery confidence in what matters most. We encourage ONS, through ongoing business planning, to set a realistic plan as a baseline that reflects true organisational capacity, provides a credible trajectory and strengthens confidence among both staff and users.