National Statistical

Secure technology and data products are the foundations upon which the ONS delivers modern statistics. One month into his new role as Director General, Luke Ashton gives his early thoughts on how his Group – ONS Digital – will support the organisation through its ongoing recovery and transformation.

After 20 years working in the banking sector, my move to the Office for National Statistics might look like quite a career pivot on paper. But, in practice, the mechanics are familiar. Ingesting, linking and analysing complicated data sets, then publishing results, are central to what banks do.  What’s different here is the purpose – underpinning the UK’s most critical economic and societal decisions and informing the public.

I was ready for something new, and I wanted a role with a different mission. I also wanted to join an organisation with a genuine mandate for change. After a period of turbulence, the ONS is leaning into the opportunity for transformation. That combination of purpose, scale and appetite for change really excites me.

What ONS Digital actually does 

My role sits across a number of directorates:

• Digital Services provides the core technology capability for the organisation.  
• Our Data directorate focuses on how we acquire, process and link data to underpin research and statistics, along with the governance around it. 
• The Security team looks after both physical security and cyber security.
• Additionally, the Strategic Innovation and Analysis directorate helps us look ahead and focus on future priorities. The team reports jointly to me and James Benford, helping to keep our priorities aligned.
  

Put simply, ONS Digital is the bedrock of the ONS. Information comes in digitally (or is digitised), is processed digitally, and is published and consumed digitally. Everything that happens under the hood, in the bits and bytes, enables our statisticians to do the remarkable things they do with data. How we protect and manage that data is crucial to the people who entrust it to us, and those relying on it – in government, industry, and communities across the country. Without a strong digital and data foundation, there is no ONS. That’s simply the reality of how a modern statistics organisation functions. 

The technology we have, and the technology we need 

The ONS has built genuinely strong capability on modern cloud platforms in recent years. Our work ingesting large volumes of price data to support inflation statistics is a great example of this. We also have real-world AI deployments helping us work more effectively, for example in classifying survey inputs. Some of what we’re doing is absolutely best in class.

At the same time, we have technology from many different eras, some of it legacy in every sense. The challenge isn’t proving we can build good technology; we’ve already demonstrated that. It’s deploying what works best more widely and consistently across the organisation, and phasing out the older technology that holds us back. That’s a complex issue that has built up over many years, but it’s solvable, and solving it is central to what I’ve been brought in to do.

Where AI fits in 

AI is understandably the subject everyone wants to talk about, and I think there’s real scope for it here, across a few distinct areas.

Firstly, in supporting statistical production and publication. Using AI to help classify survey responses is one example we’ve already spoken about publicly, but there is clear potential for our statisticians to work more quickly and efficiently, and to share our output securely and ethically in an AI ecosystem.

Second, in automation more broadly, both within technology and across the wider organisation, driving efficiency in areas that would otherwise be difficult to automate.

Finally, in software development itself. AI tools supporting development have matured impressively, and we are already using them to speed up our internal processes, help developers work more efficiently, and build and test prototypes with users more quickly. This is an important opportunity. We can also use AI to test the security of our code, strengthening our resilience as we go.

Looking ahead 

The Executive Committee have established a strong focus across the ONS on doing fewer things but doing them really well. For ONS Digital, that means being genuinely clear about our target state architecture and technology platforms, and how we move away from legacy systems securely and sensibly, using AI where it helps us do so at pace.

This thinking needs to come together in a Digital and Data Plan, which I’ll be putting together over the coming months. It will need to set out not just the key programmes we’re delivering today, but the future architecture and capabilities the organisation needs. Setting that “North Star” clearly is foundational to everything that follows.

Alongside the longer-term plan, I’m also looking for quick wins, places where we can refocus support around key priorities and deliver visible progress in the short term. Demonstrating our ability to change matters. But I want to be honest that some of what we’re tackling are long-term, complex challenges – requiring sustained discipline and rigour, in line with the recovery plans already in place. We can’t take our foot off the gas there. Supporting the recovery is probably the single most important thing ONS Digital can do for the organisation right now.
Of course, none of this works without the right people. In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve already seen real talent, real desire to support the ONS mission, and genuine passion for the work.

I’m looking forward to sharing more as our technology strategy takes shape.