National Statistical

Over the last year the ONS has been focusing resources on its headline economic statistics and progressing improvements, particularly on our complex labour market data. In line with our commitment to transparency at the earliest opportunity, James Benford updates on an operational issue which will temporarily impact data quality for the labour force survey from next month. James describes the immediate action taken and work in train on a wider lessons-learned exercise to ensure we both correct course and act to strengthen our operations to further progress the recovery of our statistics. 

There has been recent interest in seasonal patterns in the UK economy and how they are evolving. James Benford writes about the work taking place at the ONS to ensure they continue to be accurately accounted for in our key indicators, such as GDP. 

The International Monetary Fund has today recognised that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is fully meeting the Special Data Dissemination Standard Plus, the highest tier of IMF’s data standards.   James Benford and Rebecca Richmond reflect on the new data we are now publishing and how this lays the foundation for further improvements. 

The picture the Office for National Statistics (ONS) paints of how the economy is faring would not be possible without businesses supplying their data to us. James Benford describes the key themes of a recent exercise to better understand the needs and experience of businesses as both contributors and users of ONS data.