The ONS has outlined details of the previously-announced cuts it will make to its data output, which it is looking to reduce by 10% this year.

In a letter addressed to interim chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Penny Young, ONS permanent secretary Darren Tierney said: “While these are difficult decisions, they are necessary given available resource to enable us to deliver our mission of trustworthy, independent, high-quality statistics that underpin the UK’s most critical economic and societal decisions and inform the public.”

As part of the measures, the ONS will reduce its involvement in health surveys. It will no longer run the Health Survey for England or the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey, as previously planned, according to the letter, which outlines details of the reductions.

The ONS is continuing to run the Annual Population Survey in response to user feedback but will reduce the survey boost in England which supports APS data ‘in the short term’, the letter said. In the longer term, the agency wants to meet user needs currently met via the APS through its Transformed Labour Force Survey.

In other cuts to health data, the ONS is stopping further developments of Health, Wellbeing and Place research, and will instead make data available to researchers through the Secure Research Service.  

Wellbeing statistics will also be scaled back, with ONS publishing its main dashboard for this area annually rather than quarterly.

In other areas, the ONS said it will ‘pause’ quarterly greenhouse gas emissions, continuing the publication of annual data on this alongside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – it is unclear when the agency intends to resume quarterly publication of these figures.

The agency will also halt its Beyond GDP statistics development work in favour of shifting towards understanding the impact of AI.

Further changes will mean that four releases of labour market statistics are consolidated into one overview, and affordability publications will be reduced.

In April, the ONS will outline further details on changes it is making to data on areas including housing, crime and tourism.

Concluding the letter, Tierney wrote: "Our priority focus continues to be producing and improving our national statistics, including GDP, prices, labour market and population statistics, alongside transition to the Transformed Labour Force Survey and preparatory work for Census 2031."