The UK Statistics Authority was established under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. The Authority is an independent statutory body. It operates at arm’s length from government as a non-ministerial department and reports directly to the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly. The work of the Authority is further defined under secondary legislation made under the Act by the UK Parliament or the devolved legislatures.
The Authority has a statutory objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics that ‘serve the public good’. The public good includes:
- informing the public about social and economic matters;
- assisting in the development and evaluation of public policy; and
- regulating quality and publicly challenging the misuse of statistics.
Official statistics are for the benefit of society and the economy as a whole; not only in government policy-making and the evaluation of government performance, but also informing the direction of economic and commercial activities. Statistics provide valuable data and evidence for analysts, researchers, public and voluntary bodies, enabling the public to hold to account organisations that spend public money, and informing wider public debate. The Authority wants to see official statistics enabling sound policy decisions, and providing a firm evidence base for decision-making both inside and outside of government.
Making public statements about the dissemination and use of statistics has been an important part of the Authority’s work since it began. The Authority is guided in this work by its overarching statutory objective to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that ‘serve the public good’. For further detail on the Authority’s role in making public interventions, and the factors that we consider in making these interventions, please read our interventions policy or look at the FAQ page on the Office for Statistics Regulation website.
Membership of the Authority’s Board comprises the Chair of the Authority, eight other non-executive members, and three executive members.