Public Policy

The hardest part of productivity measurement

Productivity has been a topic of great interest in recent years, especially because of the well-known ‘productivity puzzle’ – the historically weak productivity growth in the UK since the economic downturn in 2008.

But if that is a puzzle, here is another one – how do you measure the productivity of public services, like education or healthcare, when they are provided for free? Since 2005, ONS has developed suitable measures for over half of public services, but there is still much to do. In this blog Josh Martin explains how the ONS measures the productivity of public services.

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How ONS plans to provide new analysis on the core issues facing our society

The ONS’ Population and Public Policy team has delivered many new insights over the past two years on the key issues facing our society today. Here, Deputy National Statistician Iain Bell reflects on some of the progress made and sets out his priorities for the coming months, which includes important work on towns and cities, further analysis of our ageing population and the continued modernisation of surveys.

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Ending a ‘burning injustice’: How the ONS will inform the drive against disability discrimination

A new cross-government policy initiative aims to tackle the ‘burning injustice’ of disability discrimination. To support this ambition ONS has pledged to develop a new data dashboard, bringing the key data into one location where the disparities affecting disabled people can be easily interpreted and monitored.  Here, Helen Colvin discusses the project and invites interested parties to help in its development. 

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New public policy analysis quarterly review published: The year so far

New insights on the scale of childhood bereavement, the jobs at risk of automation and how inequality is affecting life expectancy have all come from ONS Public Policy Analysis this year. Following the publishing of the second edition of our quarterly review, Liz McKeown looks back on some of these findings and discusses how you can also input to this review.

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