Britain's ONS Continues Move to 'Quality over Quantity'

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is planning to further narrow the focus of its publications, to concentrate more resource on guaranteeing the quality of core economic and social statistics. The ongoing policy has seen the number of ONS outputs halve in the last five years.

The department aims to reduce the number of its publications by around 10% in 2026, 'focusing on what audiences need most and delivering streamlined, clearer information'. A new web site is also under wraps. ONS Permanent Secretary Darren Tierney comments: 'Our top priority is restoring the quality of our core statistics, and we are already enacting the key recommendations from Sir Robert Devereux's review. Today's plans take us one step further, narrowing the focus of our portfolio and reducing the number of publications so we can devote resources to our improvement work, putting quality over quantity and working closely with users to rebuild trust.'

Specifically, in health stats, the ONS says it will continue to produce core statistics such as births, deaths and life expectancy, but will reduce other health analysis work, 'engaging stakeholders and other parts of government to identify outputs that others should take forward'; review its broader work beyond headline crime statistics, to ensure efforts match budgets available; and 'reconsidering the subnational statistics portfolio, for local and regional decision-makers, including the merits of running the Annual Population Survey (APS), and the 'breadth, sequencing and frequency' of sub-national publications and development work in the run up to Census 2031, with a view to 'freeing up resource' in the near term.

The Office says these changes will free up staff for core quality improvement activity and generate capacity to expedite recovery work through its Economic Statistics and Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plans.

At the same time, the Office also set out plans to engage government departments more fully in relevant areas of economic statistics; narrow the focus of its contribution to international work to themes most relevant to ONS core statistics, the census, and continued progress on integration of data from surveys and administration sources; and consolidate its business surveys portfolio, 'to reduce burden on both respondents and business areas and to improve the quality of the data we collect.'

In June, following a debate and consultation, the ONS recommended that the government continue the England and Wales Census, continuing a process two centuries old.

The Office is online at 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.