The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK, and aim 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, and are independent from government Ministers, and separate from producers of statistics, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS). See more about our governance.
We do this 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 which meet the standards are given accredited official statistics status (called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007). We also report publicly on system-wide issues and on the way that statistics are being used, celebrating when the standards are upheld and challenging publicly when they are not.
Our vision is simple. Statistics should serve the public good.
Statistics serve the public good when, as public assets, they provide insight that allows them to be used widely for informing understanding and shaping action.
We would typically have shared our Annual Business Plan with you by late spring. We are currently working to develop our multi-year strategy for 2025-2030 and the intention is to publish a full business plan alongside that strategy in the autumn, so you can see the full context. To fill any gap in information until the full plans are available, we have produced an Interim Summary Business Plan 2025/26 to set out our priorities for the next six months. We have also updated our Rolling Regulatory Work Programme with the list of projects we are working on, alongside our ongoing casework interventions.
Our Work
Our main regulatory tools are assessments, compliance reviews, systemic reviews and casework. Our work challenges producers to meet the Standards of the Code so that their statistics serve the public good.
See more about our regulatory work, including the rolling work programme.
Committing to deliver Trustworthiness, Quality and Value, the core principles of the Code, benefits anyone producing data, statistics and analysis, whether they are inside or outside government. TQV are relevant to all kinds of data, such as those published in statistical research, economic analysis and management information.
OSR runs a scheme to recognise organisations working outside of official statistics production that voluntarily apply the Code and the principles of TQV. Producers of data, statistics or analysis that are not official statistics and who apply the Code principles are encouraged to be part of the TQV voluntary application (VA) scheme.
You can find more information about our Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality and Value and the TQV Voluntary Application scheme on the Code of Practice website.
Our Insight function has strategic oversight of how OSR uses intelligence and data to deliver on its vision. A key challenge for OSR is drawing together the findings and learning from all our different outputs and engagements, finding the common themes, identifying emerging issues, and filtering the priorities. The purpose of our Insight function is to design and deliver improvements in how OSR uses, analyses, and communicates information and findings, both internally and externally.
We aim to ensure that we are focusing our energies on the right issues, that relevant audiences are aware of our findings, and that statistics producers are responding to them.
Our research programme will gather empirical research, undertake research projects, and collaborate with others who share our vision of statistics that serve the public good. Through the findings we uncover, we want to lead producers of statistics to develop a much better understanding of how their statistics can serve the maximum public good, so they can focus on what really matters.
Statistics serve very important functions; They support key policy decisions, but they also support the decisions made by society, providing crucial information for businesses, charities, community groups, and trade unions. They also inform individual citizens about the world they are living in, aiding decision-making about education, health, the economy, and other aspects of life. Our research programme aims to leading a better understanding of the public good and deliver on our vision.
See more about our research overview programme.
Our Data and Methods programme aims to provide intelligence for our regulators, helping us to understand the changing world and impact for statistics regulation and production, and to identify risks to use of statistics in public debate. Our current projects include automating the monitoring of public debate around statistics and identifying gaps in our knowledge and measure our impact.
The programme will also explore data use. We are looking at understanding data use in statistics and public debate, which is likely to also expand to use for decision making and impact on public choices. We will also be exploring OSR’s potential future remit and role in regulating data uses within the area of official statistics.
Our Policy and Standards function maintains the Code of Practice for Statistics and the associated policies and guidance. It leads on promoting and supporting application of the Code across the UK. When producers of official statistics comply with the Code, it supports users of statistics and citizens to have confidence that published government statistics are useful, of appropriate quality and produced by people and organisations that are worthy of trust.