Public Policy

Bringing together UK health statistics

Categories: Data, Health, Office for National Statistics, Public Policy, Wellbeing
Hospital corridor

Making government statistics accessible to everyone and coherent across data sets maximises the value they bring to important topics. The ONS has been working with the devolved administrations and health bodies to bring together and improve the statistical coherence of UK health data. Becky Tinsley shares an update on this work and explains how it will help create a deeper and wider understanding of health.

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A voice for UK businesses – a milestone for our business insights survey

Categories: Business, Coronavirus, Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, Public Policy
Image of a person inputting data

Back in March 2020, life changed very suddenly as COVID-19 struck. In the first days of lockdown the ONS set up what it thought would be a temporary rapid business survey to assess how the pandemic was impacting UK businesses. Gemma Rabaiotti explains how four years and 100 waves of responses later, the Business Impact of Coronavirus survey– now renamed the Business Insights and Conditions survey – (BICS) has cemented its place as a timely and vital voice on the challenges facing businesses today.

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What is the meaning of life?  Measuring National well-being in the UK

Categories: Data, Economy, Health, Public Policy, Wellbeing
A group of people looking happy, they have their arms around each other and are in a park type setting with sunlight behind them

This week, ONS has published a range of data on what people tell us matters most to them when it comes to living a good and meaningful life.  Here Tim Vizard looks at what we’ve discovered, why it is important and our plans to continue exploring beyond purely economic measures to get a fuller picture of how our society is doing.

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Down your way: working towards more localised data on public sector spending

Categories: Economy, ONS, Public Policy

Since we introduced the country and regional public sector finances data in 2017, further opportunities have emerged to use alternative data sources to make these statistics more timely. Moreover, data sources and production techniques can help increase the granularity of geographical breakdowns. In this post we look at some improvements we’re working on.

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