National Statistical

We recognise that in recent years some of our key economic statistics have not met users’ expectations on quality and trustworthiness. Today we have published two detailed plans to urgently improve the quality of our core economic outputs and the surveys underpinning them. As Acting Director General for Economic Statistics Grant Fitzner explains, these include improvements in data collection and statistical production and address underlying resourcing issues to add resilience for the future.

We have sometimes tried to be all things to all people, spreading our resources too thin, limiting our investment in our core statistics. The ONS regrets these quality issues and understand the significant challenges they have presented for our users 

The plan for ONS economic statistics aims to restore confidence and improve the quality of our core statistics. It is open about where things stand today and where we need to do better, and forms a crucial part of our response to the recent Office for Statistics Regulation review into economic statistics.  The Surveys Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics does the same for our household and business surveys.

These plans are published alongside Sir Robert Devereux’s independent review of the ONS. Taken together, these announcements mark a turning point for the ONS.

Better data, better systems  

Our economic statistics plan sets out a range of important changes that will help us deliver lasting improvements and make the ONS’s data sources, systems and quality assurance fit for the future.  

Firstly, we will ensure we have the best source data possible. This means both developing a new business register that ensures better coverage of UK businesses, resulting in more representative samples, and a new streamlined approach to contacting businesses, which will improve response rates and quality. For our engagement with households, we will continue to roll out 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 we receive. 

Secondly, we will make significant investments in upgrading our systems for processing the raw data we receive. We have already successfully delivered new platforms for our consumer price statistics and now plan to replace legacy systems in a number of other areas – such as producer prices, workforce jobs and trade in services – which will both speed up data processing and make it easier to spot irregularities in these data.  

Thirdly, we will place more emphasis on the importance of continuous improvement. Learning from small scale pilots, development teams sit alongside production staff to monitor and deliver the process change necessary from data collection through to statistical output. Crucially, we are also putting in place more capacity in production teams to address quality assurance issues, particularly speeding up the identification of errors in source data. 

As well as the plans announced above, we will also be working hard to ensure that we integrate the latest international frameworks – such as the new UN System of National Accounts 2025 – into our headline statistics. 

Bean Review 

When the Bean Review was delivered eight years ago, which informed our previous programme of statistics transformation, it was envisaged that use of so-called ‘administrative’ and ‘big’ data sources would largely be able to replace survey data.  

We have made significant progress with data sources, such as using VAT to calculate GDP, HMRC tax data to measure the number of people in work or the impending introduction of supermarket scanner data to measure inflation. However, it is clear that for some areas of the economy, such as whether those out of work are actively seeking employment, survey data can offer unique value. This is why we are now investing extra resources into our survey operations. 

Reprioritisation 

We are closing the Integrated Data Programme and releasing resource to support economic statistics improvement. The data linking technology developed as part of that programme will be focused on ONS priorities, while we continue to enable access to datatsets for accredited researchers. In addition we are redirecting analytical teams from social and public policy topics to work on our core statistics. We are also streamlining management roles and consolidating our supporting functions. Together, these moves will bring a further £10m investment (which will fund around 150 new skilled roles) into our core economic and population statistics over the next two years. 

A turning point 

While today marks a turning point, it will take some time for our programme of quality improvements to fully stabilise our headline statistics. Our methodological work is complex and our progress will not always be linear as we meet new challenges and adapt to wider developments. In addition, as we update sources and replace legacy software, it is inevitable that we will discover further issues with our current data and methods. We will of course be transparent about any revisions we make.  

Alongside these practical steps, 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 reprioritise 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.