Inclusivity Overhaul for UK National Statistics

The National Statistician, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, has set out a series of initiatives in response to the Inclusive Data Taskforce (IDTF) report and recommendations. The changes aim to ensure that issues facing Britain's most vulnerable and disadvantaged are fully covered in statistics and evidence.

Sir Ian (pictured) commissioned the taskforce last October, following the publication of 'Statistics for the Public Good' the previous July. What is known as the collaborative development programme, covering all four nations of the UK, builds on existing work and responds to the IDTF's recommendations, which identify and give detailed recommendations for eight areas for improvement. In his response, Sir Ian has highlighted actions that are now being taken, including a collaboration between the Government Equalities Office and the ONS to link existing data, with the aim of delivering better insights into inequalities across UK society.

Other programme developments include the launch of an Equalities Data Navigator tool, to make it easier to find data; improving engagement with under-represented groups by building on 2021 Census community outreach work; developing a 'social contract' with research participants on what they can expect from their interaction with data collectors; and initiatives to identify currently under-represented groups of people in data - including collaborative work between the ONS, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the devolved administrations to improve data on people not living in households.

In addition, there are plans to improve surveys and other data sources, to enable more granular analysis of specific groups, including the creation of multi-year pooled datasets by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department for Health and Social Care. Feasibility studies will be conducted on how new data sources can be used to fill data gaps using data science techniques and international collaboration; and enhancements to data quality are planned, though, for example, the Cabinet Office's Race Disparity Unit's and Disability Unit's data improvement programmes.

Sir Ian comments: 'I warmly welcome the findings of the Inclusive Data Taskforce which will help to improve the quality of data and evidence across the UK. The UK has good, dependable statistics. But the more complete our coverage of all sections of society is, and the more precisely we can use data to analyse different aspects of people's lives, the more valuable our insights will be'.

Web sites: www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk and www.ons.gov.uk .

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