The Office for Statistics Regulation provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK.
If you have an enquiry about a set of statistics, contact details for each member of the team are below. For general enquiries contact the regulation team email.
Ed Humpherson – Director General for Regulation
Ed joined the team in January 2014 and is based in our London office. More biographical information about Ed.
Rob Kent-Smith – Deputy Head
Rob joined the team in 2023, based in our Newport office. He 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.
Email Rob Kent-Smith Tel. 01633 455657
Helen Miller-Bakewell – Head of Development and Impact
Helen joined the team in 2022, based in our London office. She has oversight of our research and innovation work and leads the Research function, the Policy and Standards function and the Data and Methods function. 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.
Mark Pont – Assessment Programme Lead and head of Newport site
Mark joined the team in 2008, based in our Newport office, to head up our assessment programme. Mark started his career in the Government Statistical Service in 1990, undertaking roles in a range of government departments. This includes 12 years spent in the Office for National Statistics as a statistical methodologist, largely spent improving aspects of the production of business statistics. In 2018, Mark was on loan to the Welsh Government for seven months as head of Economy, Skills and Natural Resources Statistics.
Email Mark Pont Tel. 01633 456393
Gail Rankin – Systemic Review Programme Lead and head of Edinburgh site
Gail joined the team in August 2019 to lead our Edinburgh office and head up our systemic review programme. Gail’s background is in engineering, and she started her career with Network Rail in project management and process improvement (six sigma) roles. In 2013, Gail moved into local government and has experience through leadership roles in data and performance management and business planning. Gail has particular interest in the environmental and health and social care sectors. Prior to joining us, Gail was the lead officer for Data, Performance and Business Planning at the City of Edinburgh Council.
Email Gail Rankin Tel. 01329 447706
Elise Baseley – Head of Casework
Elise re-joined the team in 2023, based in our London office, to oversee OSR’s statistics casework. Elise previously worked as a statistics regulator and led the Labour Market and Welfare domain. Prior to joining OSR, she worked in a range of statistical production and policy-facing roles in the Cabinet Office, Department for Work and Pensions, and Office for Manpower Economics. In 2022, Elise was on loan to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs for a year as the Head of Environmental Indicators, Statistics and Reporting.
Kirsty Garratt – Head of Private Office and Casework Manager
Kirsty joined the team in February 2022 and is based in our Titchfield office. She leads OSR’s casework function, co-ordinating casework investigations and responses, working with the Authority Chair’s private office as required. She also works with the wider OSR team to co-ordinate briefing and presentations, support DG meetings and parliamentary engagements, and submissions to the Authority Board and Regulation Committee. Prior to joining OSR, Kirsty worked in ONS managing the field teams completing the Census and then in the Strategy team for Public Policy Analysis.
Email Kirsty Garratt Tel. 01329 890158
Amar Chowdrey – Private Secretary to Director General for Regulation
Amar provides support to the Director General for Regulation (DG) and wider team in their decision making and management of daily responsibilities. He keeps the DG appropriately informed on ongoing issues including casework, work programming, the Code of Practice and other projects. Amar manages the DG’s diary and external engagements.
Email Amar Chowdrey Tel. 020 7592 8615
Chris Ferrier – Casework Officer
Chris joined OSR in September 2019 in our Edinburgh office. Chris works within OSR’s casework function, co-ordinating casework investigations and responses. Prior to joining the Private Office team, Chris work in the Regulation Support function of OSR.
Email Chris Ferrier Tel. 01329 447520
Ben Bohane – Statistics Regulator: Economy, Business and Trade
Ben joined the team in July 2020 and is based in the Newport office. Ben started his career in sales before training as a teacher at Warwick university, after which he taught GCSE and A level economics and business for 11 years. Ben has also worked for the exam boards as an examiner, as an Economics tutor, and also taught English and Maths to looked after children in care.
Email Ben Bohane Tel: +441633456947
Nisha Bunting – Statistics Regulator: Health and Social Care and Children, Education and Skills
Nisha joined the team in January 2019 and is based in our Edinburgh office. She works within the Health and Social Care domain and supports the Children, Education and Skills domain. Prior to joining OSR, Nisha worked as Performance Manager for the Office of the Scottish Road Works Commissioner. She has previously held roles in strategic planning at Edinburgh Napier University and as an analyst in HR within the financial sector.
Email Nisha Bunting Tel. 01633 456659
Emily Carless – Statistics Regulator: Economy, Business and Trade co-lead
Emily joined the team in May 2018 and is based in Newport. She started her career in the Government Statistical Service (GSS) as a fast stream statistician in 2002. She has worked in Welsh Government, ONS and the National Statistician’s Office on a wide range of topics including Business and Social Survey Methodology, Measuring Government Activity, Labour Market Statistics and Price Statistics. She led our Review of the Approach to Developing Statistical Models to Award Grades in 2020, our Review of Children and Young People Statistics and the State of the Statistical System 2021/22 report. Emily leads the Children, Education and Skills domain.
Email Emily Carless Tel: 01633 455
Catherine Davies – Statistics Regulator: Transport, Environment and Climate Change
Catherine joined the team in April 2022 and is based in our Newport office. Prior to joining the team Catherine worked as a social researcher at the Office for National Statistics for nearly twenty years in a variety of posts supporting business surveys, social surveys and the census, as well as leading work on statistical quality and harmonisation.
Job de Roij – Statistics Regulator: Crime and Security lead
Job joined the team in 2016 and works in our Edinburgh office. He leads the Crime and Security domain. He also manages the online Code of Practice for Statistics and is a committee member of the Royal Statistical Society’s Data Ethics and Governance Section. Previously, Job worked as a statistician in the Department for Work and Pensions.
Email Job de Roij Tel. 01329 447709
Marianthi Dunn – Principal Economist and Statistics Regulator: Economy, Business and Trade co-lead
Marianthi joined the team in January 2023 and is based in Newport. She has been working with economic statistics since 2000, specialising in national accounts production, analysis and methods development, largely spent at the Office for National Statistics.
In 2014, Marianthi was seconded to Eurostat for four years, producing the Eurozone’s GDP and leading a joint Task Force with Eurostat, the OECD and the European Central Bank on harmonising validation rules for the GDP aggregates across the EU. In 2018 Marianthi was head of the Labour Productivity production branch where she led a review on improving estimates of labour productivity and international comparisons.
In 2020 Marianthi was head of the Capital Stocks and National Balance Sheet production branch, where she introduced faster estimates of net worth and initiatives to improve the estimates of land as well as full transparency in the capital stocks statistical production system giving users the autonomy to run their own analysis.
Oliver Fox-Tatum – Statistics Regulator: Housing, Planning and Local Services lead
Oliver joined the team in 2014 and is based in our Newport office. Prior to joining the team, he worked in the Office for National Statistics – in household survey design and management and as a pension statistics analyst. Oliver is our lead on housing, planning and local services statistics. He conducts reviews on the compliance of statistics such as house price indices and worked on our refresh of the Code of Practice.
Email Oliver Fox-Tatum Tel. 01633 455848
Caroline Jones – Statistics Regulator: Health and Social Care co-lead
Caroline joined the team in 2012 and is based in our Newport office. Prior to that, she worked at the Office for National Statistics. She has regulated a wide variety of statistics, latterly with a focus on health and social care statistics. She co-leads the Health and Social Care domain, working with Anna Price, Vicky Stone and Sarah Whitehead.
Email Caroline Jones Tel. 01633 456734
Gemma Keane – Statistics Regulator: Labour Market and Welfare and Transport, Environment and Climate Change
Gemma joined the team in late 2018 and is based in our Newport office. Her main focus is regulating statistics on Labour Market and Welfare having previously worked on Housing, Planning and Local Services, but she also supports our Transport, Environment and Climate Change domain. Prior to joining the team, Gemma worked at the Office for National Statistics for 16 years in a variety of posts across Economic Statistics.
Email Gemma Keane Tel. 01633 456081
Benjamin Kendall Ward – Statistics Regulator: Crime and Security
Benjamin joined the team in June 2021 and is based in our Edinburgh office. He works within Crime and Security domain. Prior to joining OSR, Benjamin worked for 7 years as an Information Analyst for Cumbria Constabulary.
Email Benjamin Kendall-Ward Tel. 03000 671 004
Ewan McLure – Statistics Regulator: Economy, Business and Trade
Ewan Joined the team in September 2022 and is based at our Newport Office. Ewan is a placement student, currently studying Economics at the University of Bath. He is working across the Economy and the Business, Industry, Trade and International Development domains.
Marie McGhee – Statistics Regulator: Population and Society lead
Marie leads the Population and Society theme having previously focused on Children, Education, and Skills up until spring 2018. She was also part of the team who developed the refreshed Code of Practice. Based in Edinburgh, Marie joined the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2015. She previously worked on Assessments including Northern Ireland Tourism statistics and International Development statistics. Before joining us, Marie worked as lead statistician at the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Email Marie McGhee Tel. 01329 447702
Nicky Pearce – Statistics Regulator: Children, Education and Skills lead
Nicky joined the team in February 2022 and is based in the Newport office. She started her career in the Office for National Statistics where she worked on a wide range statistics across inflation, environmental accounts and social surveys. Following the ONS, Nicky spent some time at the Office for Students before joining the OSR. Nicky works in the Children, Education and Skills domain.
Anna Price – Statistics Regulator: Health and Social Care lead
Anna joined the team in July 2019. She is based in the Edinburgh office and jointly leads on regulating our Health and Social Care domain with Caroline Jones. Prior to joining OSR, Anna worked at the Information Services Division as the technical lead overseeing the modernisation of official statistics production and publication.
Email Anna Price Tel. 01313 141717
David Ross – Statistics Regulator: Transport, Environment and Climate Change and Crime and Security
David joined the team in 2020 and is based in the Edinburgh office. His main work area is Transport, Environment and Climate Change with a secondary focus on Crime and Security. He previously worked as a statistician within Forest Research focusing on the national inventory of British woodlands. Prior to this he worked for the surface ships division of BAE systems and for Strathclyde University.
Email David Ross Tel: 01329447521
Vicky Stone – Statistics Regulator: Labour Market and Welfare lead
Vicky joined the team in January 2019 and is a home worker attached to our Edinburgh office. She currently leads our Labour Market and Welfare domain, after working on Health and Social Care statistics until Spring 2022. She has a strong analytical background having worked as an Intelligence Analyst for Cleveland Police for 15 years. Vicky was part of a team responsible for the analytical support to both frontline officers and investigation teams.
Email Vicky Stone Tel. 01329 447700
Siobhan Tuohy-Smith – Statistics Regulator: Population and Society lead (currently on maternity leave)
Siobhan re-joined the team in March 2021 and is based in the Newport office. She jointly leads on regulating our Population and Society domain with Marie McGhee. She previously led on the development of the refreshed Code of Practice for Statistics. Her previous roles have included statistical, regulatory and policy roles across the civil service, including at the Office for Students, Ministry of Defence and the Department for Business, and in local government. She has also led on the delivery of analytical tools and outputs in the private sector.
Email Siobhan Tuohy-Smith Tel. 01633 560486
Sarah Whitehead – Statistics Regulator: Health and Social Care
Sarah joined the team in January 2019 and is based in our Newport office. Her main focus is on regulating statistics on Health and Social Care. Her previous roles have been in both academia and the Civil Service and have covered a variety of health-related topics. Prior to joining OSR, Sarah was based at Companies House for three years where she managed the official statistics publications, as well as a range of ad-hoc analytical work.
Email Sarah Whitehead Tel. 01633 456568
Luke Boyce – Statistics Regulator: Housing, Planning and Local Services and Children, Education and Skills
Luke joined the team in May 2023 and is based in our Edinburgh office. Luke works within the Housing, Planning and Local Services domain and the Children, Education and Skills domain. Prior to joining the team, Luke worked as a statistician in the Department for Work and Pensions producing official statistics and he has previously worked in the pharmaceutical sector.
Claire Mokrysz – Statistics Regulator: Population and Society
Claire joined the team in May 2023 and is based in our Edinburgh office. Prior to her role at OSR she worked as a social researcher at the Office for National Statistics, focusing on the development of admin-based population statistics. She previously worked at University College London, leading research into the psychological effects of recreational drug use.
Email Claire Mokrysz Tel. 01329 890385
Emily Barrington – Head of Data and Automation
Emily joined the team in October 2019 and leads OSR’s work on data use, alternative data and emerging technologies. This is a new and developing strand of OSR’s work and includes leading the automation programme within OSR, exploring the use of AI within statistics and answering some of the questions surrounding its regulation.
Email Emily Barrington Tel: 01633 455863
Theo Jolliffe – Data Scientist
Theo joined the team in March 2023 and is developing systems to aid the analysis of public discourse. He is using emerging tools within AI, such as large language models (like GPT) to automate tasks such as fact-checking and text analysis. Theo previously worked at the Office for National Statistics were he developed new methods for semi-automated content generation.
Email Theo Jolliffe Tel: 01633 651544
Penny Babb – Head of Policy and Standards
Penny joined the team in 2008 and is based in our London office. She has reviewed a wide variety of statistics since 2009 and co-authored the Authority’s Quality Assurance of Administrative Data framework. She led on delivering and maintaining the refreshed Code of Practice for Statistics, supporting its wide adoption across the UK. Penny has worked in official statistics for over 20 years, on births, cancer, social inequalities and police recorded crime. She was editor of the ONS flagship report, ‘Social Trends’.
Email Penny Babb Tel. 02075 928666
Sofi Nickson – Head of Research
Sofi joined the team in 2022 and leads OSR’s research function. This includes the Research Programme as well as providing research support to others in OSR. Prior to joining OSR, Sofi worked as a researcher in the Office for National Statistics and Welsh Government.
Email Sofi Nickson Tel: 01633 3456613
Mary Louise Cowan – Research Specialist
Mary joined the team in March 2020 and is based in our London office. She works on OSR’s Research Programme, which involves scoping, designing and carrying out research related to the public good of statistics. She also contributes to the regulatory work of the Transport, Environment and Climate Change domain. Prior to joining OSR, Mary worked in academia as a lecturer in psychology.
Email Mary Cowan Tel: 01633 651957
Michelle Alderson – Insight and Evaluation Manager
Michelle joined the team in January 2019 and currently leads our Insight and Evaluation work and previously worked as a regulator across various domains. Michelle previously worked at the Office for National Statistics within household surveys on income and within the efficiency measurement unit.
Email Michelle Alderson Tel. 01633 456672
Suzanne Halls – Head of Public Affairs and External Relations
Suzanne established the OSR communications team and leads media, public affairs, digital and stakeholder engagement across the organisation.
Email Suzanne Halls Tel. 07411 212300
Jennifer Lackie – Digital Communications Lead
Jen joined the team in 2019 and leads on digital communications for OSR. Jen previously worked in digital communications and creating digital content in Higher Education.
Email Jennifer Lackie Tel: 01633 456543
Jason Stolborg-Price – Digital Communications Officer
Joined the team in May 2023 as digital communications officer. Previously worked for ONS for 8 years in Social Surveys Division, working as a field operations manager for data collection. Also, a background in Human Resources, local authority libraries, and a trained yoga teacher.
Email Jason Stolborg-Price Tel: 03000 671507
Donna Livesey – Head of Regulation Support
Donna supports our business planning, work programming and management of resources, including learning and development.
Email Donna Livesey Tel. 01633 455814
Michelle Walters – Regulation Support Manager
Michelle joined the team in July 2017, based in our Newport office. She supports our Business Manager and Regulators
Email Michelle Walters. Tel: 01633 456292
Lucy Davies – Regulation Support Manager
Lucy joined the team in January 2023, based in our Newport office. She supports our Business Manager and Regulators.
Email Lucy Davies Tel: 01633 651801