New Centre to Measure UK Government Performance

Len Cook, head of the Office of National Statistics (ONS), has launched the UK Centre for the Measurement of Government Activity (UKCeMGA), a separate ONS directorate which will take forward recommendations from Sir Tony Atkinson's review of the measurement of government productivity.

The Centre will work with other government departments, public services, the research community, and other countries' statistical offices. Its remit is to produce improved output and productivity measures for government activities across health, education, public order and safety, and social protection. As recommended in the Atkinson Review, it will also produce 'productivity articles' to provide public services with information about assessing productivity. These will build on the Health Service productivity article published by the ONS last October.

UKCeMGA will report through its Executive Director Joe Grice to the National Statistician, but will also benefit from its own non-executive Advisory Board. The Board comprises experts in analysis, public service delivery and national accounting and includes Sir Tony himself, Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford. It will be chaired by Peter Smith, Professor of Economics at the University of York and a Commissioner of the Audit Commission. The other members are:

• Robert Chote, Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Moira Gibb, Chief Executive, London Borough of Camden
• David Green, Director, Institute for the Study of Civil Society (Civitas)
• David Wroe, former Deputy Director, Central Statistical Office.

Cook, who is due to retire next month after five years as National Statistician, recently responded in detail to the Atkinson Review. He welcomed the development of a set of consistent principles to underpin measurements of government activity, and agreed with the emphasis on working transparently and in accordance with an international consensus. Speaking about the new Centre, he said: 'It will play a central role in driving better measurement of government output and productivity. It will enable us to respond strongly to the challenges posed by Sir Tony Atkinson's report, and will help keep the UK at the forefront of international efforts to measure public output properly.'

An information pack summarising the Centre's work programme is at www.statistics.gov.uk/about/data/methodology/specific/PublicSector/output/default.asp

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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