The Office for Statistics Regulation provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK. Our team work across a number of regulatory domains and functions, overseen by a senior leadership team. Our What we do page has more detail.
Our Senior Leadership Team
Ed Humpherson – Head of the Office for Statistics Regulation
Ed joined the team as Director General for Regulation in January 2014. More biographical information about Ed.
Rob Kent-Smith – Deputy Head
Rob joined the team in 2023 and is responsible for driving OSR’s development as a regulator, focusing on strategy, capability and impact, and how we secure positive change in the statistics system. For a decade Rob worked as an economist at the Office for National Statistics in a variety of roles, this most recently included leading the production and transformation of the National Accounts and GDP. Prior to joining OSR, Rob was on loan to the Welsh Government for two years leading the transport strategy and policy division.
Siobhan Tuohy-Smith – Head of Regulatory Compliance
Siobhan re-joined the team in 2021. She leads OSR’s regulatory programme, with responsibility for the coherence, effectiveness and impact of OSR’s regulatory tools, frameworks and overall regulatory approach and ensuring compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Siobhan previously worked as a statistics regulator and led the Labour Market and Welfare and Population and Society domains. She also led on the development of the Code of Practice for Statistics v2.0. Prior to joining (and re-joining) OSR, she has held a range of statistical production, regulatory and policy roles across government departments and in local government. She has also led on the delivery of analytical tools and outputs in the private and research sectors.
Helen Miller-Bakewell – Head of Casework
Helen joined the team in 2022 and has oversight of our casework function, which identifies and investigates issues relating to the production and use of statistics raised with the Authority. Helen joined the Government Statistical Service, from academia, in 2013. She worked as a producer of statistics in three government departments before joining OSR (for the first time!) as a statistical regulator in 2019. She previously had oversight of our research and innovation work, before taking on the casework role.
Gail Rankin – Head of Development and Impact
Gail joined the Office for Statistics Regulation in August 2019 and has oversight of our Research, Policy and Standards, and Data and Methods functions. Her background is in engineering, and she began her career with Network Rail in project management and process improvement roles, specialising in Six Sigma. In 2013, she moved into local government, where she held leadership roles in data and performance management and business planning.
For general enquiries for the Office for Statistics Regulation, or to contact our Domain teams, please complete the form below. If you would like to raise a concern related to the production and use of statistics, please see our Raise a Concern pages.