Executive summary
Why we did this review
The aim of the Office for Statistics (OSR)’s Review of Economic Statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) was to identify, and respond to, high-level, cross-cutting issues and concerns, covering data sources for economic statistics, stakeholder needs and engagement, and related organisational issues.
Findings
The interim report of OSR’s review (published in April 2025) concluded that ONS needed to take urgent action to rebuild trust in its core economic statistics and placed four immediate requirements on ONS.
This final report of the review confirms the findings of the interim report and assesses the progress ONS has made in responding to the requirements set out in that report.
To some extent, this review reflects the recent history of ONS’s economic statistics. However, we recognise that there have been important activities and developments since our interim report. Since the summer, ONS has also taken several positive steps to strengthen its approach, with an emphasis on openness, transparency, and prioritisation. This openness marks an important step in rebuilding trust and fostering confidence in the future of UK economic statistics, we welcome these developments and will consider them in further detail as part of our response to ONS’s forthcoming quarterly progress report.
This report sets out OSR’s expectations for further progress and its planned approach to the future regulation of ONS. This is intended to ensure that the progress made so far is maintained.
The four immediate requirements set in the interim report were:
Requirement 1
To restore the confidence of its users, ONS should publish a fully resourced plan to recover its social survey operation and reduce risk in its business survey operation.
Requirement 2
The overarching annual ONS business plan should be explicit on how resources are aligned with its core purposes and outputs as a national statistical institute. ONS should implement a more transparent and engaged approach to the way it prioritises across its output of economic statistics. This work should include an annually updated strategic plan for economic statistics.
Requirement 3
In addition to the recovery plan and drawing on the overall strategy for economic statistics, ONS should develop and publish a regularly updated vision and strategy for the data sources used to compile its economic statistics.
Requirement 4
ONS should implement a prioritised rolling programme of regular reviews of individual surveys and other data sources focusing on maintaining quality.
In parallel with the OSR review, Sir Robert Devereux undertook a review into ONS’s organisation and culture. Sir Robert’s review judged that the problems with ONS core economic statistics reflected issues with ONS organisation and culture, including ineffective prioritisation.
Our judgement on progress and future expectations
In response to the OSR interim report and the Devereux report, ONS published improvement plans for economic statistics and for the associated surveys. ONS has subsequently set out the initial steps it is taking to make progress with these plans.
OSR judges that these plans meet OSR’s immediate requirements to take action to restore confidence, ensure strategic transparency and enhance focus on the quality of data inputs.
In this final report, OSR sets out its expectations on the steps ONS should take to maintain progress over the longer term. These are as follows:
- ONS should meet its commitment to publish a data sources strategy and roadmap covering the integrated roles of administrative and survey data.
- ONS should include within future versions of its plans data on the resources allocated to, and between, individual core economic statistics.
- In future versions of its Plan for Economic Statistics, ONS should set out a prioritised programme of quality reviews.
Future approach to the regulation of ONS economic statistics
To provide assurance on progress, OSR’s future approach to the regulation of ONS economic statistics will be multi-faceted, consisting of:
- assuring and supporting progress against the ONS plans a whole
- assuring compliance of individual sets of statistics and key improvements with the Code of Practice for Statistics
- providing a systemic view of ONS’s recovery, including ONS’s effectiveness in moving resources to support economic statistics and engaging effectively with its stakeholders on its approach to prioritisation