In an independent review into the performance and culture of the ONS, carried out by Sir Robert Devereux KCB and published at the end of last week, weaknesses with the ONS’s work culture, focus on core work and allocation of funding were highlighted.

In response to the review, the ONS said that it recognised that key economic statistics “have not met users’ expectations on quality and trustworthiness” and set out two plans to address issues raised in the independent review, including making improvements in data collection and statistical production and fixing underlying resourcing issues.

The independent review said that while there had been “a commendable interest” in new approaches to statistics and making sure the ONS was relevant to wider political debate, “this has had the (unintended) effect of de-prioritising the less exciting, but nonetheless crucial, task of delivering core economic statistics of sufficient quality to guide decision making”.

While additional funding had been found for flagship programmes such as the Integrated Data Service, the review said that the situation saw both a “constraint on organisational bandwidth” and restricted funding for core economic production teams.

For example, Devereux wrote that many interviewees for the review reported that ONS should be further forward on the development of the new Statistical Business Register, both to extend it to smaller companies and to reclassify those companies in preparation for the UN’s new system of national accounts.

The review added that there was a divergence between what staff were asked to do and the resources provided to do so.

There was also a “reluctance, at senior levels, to hear and act on difficult news”, especially with whether targets for work were realistic.

“The organisation had established values to be radical, ambitious, inclusive, sustainable,” the review said. “And the experience during the pandemic well illustrates how such values can drive extraordinary behaviour and results.

“Unfortunately, the lesson learned seems to have been ‘all things are possible’, without the nuance that this is typically only true when there is an overwhelming emergency, which understandably de-prioritises many other activities. Several people suggested that the list of values was missing ‘realistic’.”

In his review, Devereux recommended that the ONS have a “focused and consistent effort to improve core statistics”, with past actions appearing “to be too piecemeal, driven by individual failures”.

Devereux also recommended changes to how the ONS is led, with the roles of national statistician and permanent secretary for the ONS temporarily separated to hire a permanent secretary with a track record of leading an operational business rather than one focused on statistics.

“I recommend this because I believe most of the problems with core statistics result from inadequacies in the way ONS has made decisions, planned and budgeted, and managed risks,” the review said.

The third recommendation was that governance of ONS is scrutinised, with one option being that the role of national statistician is left with the chair of the UK Statistics Authority and leadership of ONS being a separate position.

The review included more than 65 interviews with senior staff at ONS and group sessions with a further 150 staff, including those in the ONS field force and those involved in the day-to-day production of statistics, and discussions with former members of ONS and ONS stakeholders. 

ONS response
In its response to the review, ONS set out an economic statistics plan to “make the ONS’s data sources, systems and quality assurance fit for the future”.

The plan included developing a new business register to get better coverage of UK businesses, resulting in more representative samples and a new streamlined approach to contacting businesses, which the ONS said it hoped would improve response rates and quality.

The ONS said earlier this year that it would prioritise its core economics and population statistics and increase work to improve survey response rates in its 2025/26 strategic business plan.

For engagement with households, the ONS added it would continue to release new ways to digitise surveys, putting more resources into knocking on doors to further boost responses, as well as putting more resource into quality assuring the raw data it receives. 

ONS said it would make “significant investments” in upgrading systems for processing raw data and place more emphasis on the importance of continuous improvement.

In addition, ONS is closing the Integrated Data Programme and releasing resource to support economic statistics improvement, as well as redirecting analytical teams from social and public policy topics to work on our core statistics.

Together, these moves are expected to bring in a further £10m investment into core economic and population statistics over the next two years, funding around 150 new skilled roles. 

Grant Fitzner, acting director general for economic statistics at the ONS, wrote in a blog post: “Our plan must be underpinned by a shift in the culture of our organisation, to embrace critical views, encourage greater curiosity, heed early warning signals and be open about the challenges we face.

“This also means ensuring we better listen to the needs of our key users and re-prioritise our work more effectively, so we can deliver the improvements necessary to our core statistics.  

“We know the road ahead won’t always be straightforward, but we look forward to sharing our progress with you as the plans announced today feed into high quality economic statistics fit for the future.”