Annex: Interim report core findings

ONS has made significant progress on a range of outputs in its portfolio of economic statistics.

Efforts have included methodological improvements to the National Accounts, particularly the introduction of double deflation, and a range of improvements to price statistics.

 ONS continues to be strongly supported by many stakeholders.

Multiple stakeholders expressed strong support for ONS’s work. Emphasis was given to the general quality of the National Accounts, the confidence that most users have in ONS’s consumer price statistics, and approval of the developments made in the use of real-time and other timely indicators, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stakeholders also noted major improvements in ONS’s engagement with users of individual statistical outputs.

OSR regulatory reports highlight common issues with data quality, administrative data and user engagement.

OSR has conducted a range of regulatory work on economic statistics over the last 5 years. While these regulatory reports note progress on methodology, there are common themes around data quality – including as it relates to survey response rates – and the challenges of using administrative data. And while there are clear improvements in user engagement, opportunities to strengthen it had been frequently observed.

Stakeholders would like to see a clearer vision and strategy for economic statistics.

While stakeholder discussions revealed some support for ONS, this support would be more consistent if stakeholders had a better understanding of ONS’s strategy and a clearer idea of what ONS regards as its core economic statistics. Differing stakeholder views on ONS priorities led us to conclude that there is no single right answer as to what ONS should focus on. It is therefore crucial that it sets out a clear articulation of its priorities – what it has chosen to focus on and why.

Stakeholders expressed widespread concern about the quality of survey data.

These concerns were focused on, but were not limited to, the widely recognised problems with the Labour Force Survey. Stakeholders welcomed recent improvements, but they remain concerned about the quality of survey data overall. On business surveys, while response rates have held up well, reflecting the mandatory nature of these surveys, there is a growing risk to their quality and representativeness. ONS staff told us that, despite some encouragement from senior managers, early warning of emerging problems had not always been welcomed.

Making sufficient resources available for its high-priority economic statistics and supporting their data sources has been a consistent challenge.

ONS increased the overall level of resources allocated to economic statistics following the 2016 Bean review. But in the context of growing demands, and a changing environment, including the pandemic, over recent years ONS has found it difficult to maintain real-terms funding for core economic statistics and particularly supporting data sources. Moreover, resource pressures on economic statistics and on the ONS as a whole had intensified in the two years preceding the review. Greater transparency over the prioritisation challenges that ONS faces, the efficiencies it has achieved and the trade-offs it must make would have both explained the situation to stakeholders and contributed to building a case for increased resources.