Performance

Purposes and activity

Statutory framework

The UK Statistics Authority (the Authority) was established under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (the Act) and on 1 April 2008 formally assumed its powers. 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 National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The work of the Authority is further defined under the secondary legislation made under the Act by the UK Parliament or devolved legislatures.

Statutory objective

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
• 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 all 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.

Statistics for the Public Good

On 16 July 2020, the Authority launched its strategy for the UK official statistics system for the five years 2020 to 2025. The strategy can be found in full on the Authority’s website.

The collective mission of our official statistics system is:

High quality data and analysis to inform the UK, improve lives and build the future.

Functions

The Statistics for the Public Good strategy covers the principal elements of the UK official statistics system for which the Authority has oversight. The Authority provides professional oversight of the Government Statistical Service (GSS), and has exclusive responsibility for its two executive arms, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). The National Statistician also leads the cross government Analysis Function.

The Government Statistical Service (GSS)

The GSS is a UK network, spread across a whole range of public bodies, including the devolved administrations and UK government departments which produces and analyses statistics. It includes professional statisticians, data scientists, geographers, researchers, economists, analysts, operational delivery staff, IT specialists and other supporting roles. The GSS is also a part of the cross government Analysis Function, which has built a community of analysts of various professional backgrounds working to provide the evidence base for understanding the biggest challenges of the day. Both the Analysis Function and the GSS are also led by the National Statistician.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS)

The ONS is the Authority’s statistical production function and is part of the GSS. Led by the National Statistician, the ONS is the UK’s internationally recognised National Statistical Institute and largest producer of official statistics. The ONS produces data, statistics and analysis on a range of key economic, social and demographic topics.

Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)

The OSR is the Authority’s independent statutory regulator. Led by the Director General for Regulation, OSR ensures that statistics are produced and disseminated in the public good and aims to increase public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics produced by governments. OSR also reports publicly on system-wide issues and on the way statistics are being used, celebrating when the standards are upheld and challenging publicly when they are not.

The legislation which established the UK Statistics Authority requires strict separation of the functions of production and regulation, where those involved in the production of statistics are not involved in the assessment of statistics against the code. The Director General for Regulation reports directly to the Chair of the Authority and produces a separate annual performance report. More detail about OSR, including its approach, its governance and an assessment of its effectiveness is set out in the Annex to this document.

Overview

The UKSA strategy

The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) strategy – Statistics for the Public Good – sets the direction for the UK official statistics system for the next five years with its overarching mission to deliver:

High quality data and analysis to inform the UK, improve lives and build for the future

The strategy describes four strategic drivers that underpin the mission statement – UKSA must be:

• Radical in taking opportunities to innovate and collaborate, using data for the public good
• Ambitious in setting out to answer the critical research questions the public needs the Government to answer, and informing the decisions that citizens, businesses and civil society take
• Inclusive in its approach to workforce, talent management, and the design of data, statistics and analysis
• Sustainable in delivering a unique service in a way which delivers value for money with lasting benefits and minimises impact on the environment, all through partnership and collaboration

The UKSA strategy is supported by business plans produced by each constituent part of the statistical system.

The ONS strategic business plan

The ONS strategic business plan, originally published alongside the UKSA strategy in July 2020, and subsequently updated in 2021 sets out how ONS will contribute towards delivery of the UKSA strategy, including in response to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, and delivering against priorities such as net-zero, levelling up economic opportunity across the country, social mobility, and an ageing population.

The Strategic Business Plan sets out how the ONS will deliver in line with the four strategic drivers – Radical, Ambitious, Sustainable and Inclusive as set out in the UKSA strategy – working in partnership with the GSS, data providers and the analytical and research community.

The plan also sets out the structure through which we deliver against our commitments. it details eight strategic objectives – each owned by a member of the ONS senior leadership team This is further supported by delivery Tiers made up of our Accountability Framework Objectives (AFOs) – and five transformation programmes:

• Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme (CDCTP)
• Integrated Data Services Programme (IDSP)
• Covid19 Infection Survey (CIS)
• Ambitious, Radical and Inclusive Economic Statistics (ARIES)
• Corporate Services Improvement Programme (CSIP)

Figure 1 below provides a visual representation of the structure showing the alignment from the Strategic Drivers through to the delivery mechanisms and supporting plans

Figure 1: ONS strategic business plan taxonomy

Key:

CDCTP – Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme

ARIES – Ambitious Radical Inclusive Economic Statistics

IDSP – Integrated Data Services Programme

CIS – COVID-19 Infection Survey

CSIP – Corporate Systems Improvement Programme

The OSR business plan

The OSR also published its business plan in May 2021. This set out the independent role, governance, vision, mission and core objectives for OSR. Performance against this business plan for 2021/22 is set out in the Annex to this document.

Performance analysis

We have continued to make significant progress during Financial Year 2021/22 – the second year of our strategy. We have delivered a wide range of achievements as set out in more detail below.

As with all government departments we have worked with HM Treasury colleagues through the Comprehensive Spending Review 2021 (SR21) exercise which aimed to settle departmental budgets for the period 2022/23 to 2024/25.

This exercise has been vitally important in securing ongoing support, placing the organisation on a sustainable footing and facilitating the delivery of our strategy for the next three financial years. As the year has progressed, we have ensured that our work in supporting the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic continued but on a more sustainable basis whilst pivoting to address broader economic and societal questions. We completed the data gathering phase of Census 2021 with a higher than anticipated response rate and world leading level of digital responses. This is a major achievement particularly in the context of the ongoing pandemic. We have now exited the significant third-party contracts and delivery mechanisms associated with the data collection exercise and have moved to the next phases of the programme including data analysis and dissemination.

The following sections of the report provide an overall summary assessment of performance against our strategic objectives and key milestones for 2021/22 as set out in the latest iteration of our Strategic Business Plan. We also provide a more detailed narrative highlighting the key achievements in the period by strategic objective on pages 24 to 33.

Summary assessment of performance by strategic objective

The strategic objectives (SOs) were developed as part of the ONS’s initial strategic business plan that was published in July 2020 and have been iterated, and rationalised, to maintain relevance to current and expected future operational context, and to support clarity of accountability. Each SO contributes to all four strategic drivers, with the strongest association shown in more detail below.

Performance against the SOs is monitored monthly through internal governance using the mapping of individual AFOs to each SO[5] as a mechanism to track progress and flag issues. The table below provides an assessment of the status of each of the eight SOs in March 2022. The green rating indicates that more than 70% of the AFOs that align to that SO were reporting either “complete” or “on track” at the time of reporting.

This end of year position is an upward trend when compared to 2020/21.

[5] Each AFO is mapped to one or more SOs depending on the contribution the AFO makes towards delivery of the SO. By tracking progress of the AFO we are able to extrapolate the performance against the SO.

Key deliverables

Our Strategic Business Plan also set out a high-level timeline of key deliverables. The table below gives the milestones for the 2021/22 financial year and their status at March 2022.

May 2021

• Milestone – Develop unified corporate systems innovation strategy and development prioritised roadmap
• Programme/Directorate – Corporate Services Improvement Programme
• Status – Completed – November 2021

June 2021

• Milestone – Launch a multi-disciplinary analytical hub to respond with pace and flexibility to the priorities of our partners and stakeholders in Government and Beyond
• Programme/Directorate – Public Policy Analysis
• Status – Completed – June 2021

September 2021

• Milestone – Integrated Data Service for Government Consumers (Private Beta)
• Programme/Directorate –Integrated Data Programme
• Status – Completed – October 2021

September 2021

• Milestone – Changes to meet international legislative requirements for Gross National Income implemented
• Programme/Directorate – Ambitious, Radical and Inclusive Economic Statistics Programme
• Status – Completed – September 2021

September 2021

• Milestone – Publish the recommendations of the Inclusive Data Taskforce
• Programme/Directorate – Public Policy Analysis
• Status – Completed – February 2022

October 2021

• Milestone – Trade improvements implemented in ANA 2021
• Programme/Directorate –Ambitious, Radical and Inclusive Economic Statistics Programme
• Status – Completed – October 2021

October 2021

• Milestone – GDP estimates using double deflation integrated in National Accounts
• Programme/Directorate –Ambitious, Radical and Inclusive Economic Statistics Programme
• Status – Completed – September 2021

December 2021

• Milestone – Expand the multi-disciplinary cross ONS analytical hub to 60 FTE
• Programme/Directorate – Public Policy Analysis
• Status – Completed – December 2021

February 2022

• Milestone – All code of practice requirements met to enable National Statistics Accreditation of 2021 Census Outputs
• Programme/Directorate – Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme
• Status –Re-baselined to June 2022

March 2022

• Milestone – All required census data processing and statistical quality assurance tasks completed to enable the recommendation to National Statistician to proceed with publication of initial findings
• Programme/Directorate – Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme
• Status –Re-baselined to June 2022

March 2022

• Milestone – Integrated Data Service for Accredited (NonGov) Consumers (Initial Operating Capability
  – Public Beta)
• Programme/Directorate – Integrated Data Programme
• Status –Re-baselined to June 2022

March 2022

• Milestone – Outputs of Census 2021 – first release of the high-level population estimates
• Programme/Directorate – Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme
• Status –Re-baselined to June 2022

Overall performance narrative by strategic objective

Summary

2021/22 was the second year of our multi-year Strategy and Strategic Business Plan. We have continued to deliver and improve our core outputs and build the foundations for our future while responding to priority demands to inform key policy decisions across Government, including the continued operation and evolution of the COVID-19 Infection Survey and ancillary work. The success of Census 21 demonstrated our commitment to transforming how we collect data without compromising on quality, and significant progress in the delivery of the Integrated Data Programme has solidified the cross-Government drive to release the potential of shared data. We have secured commitment from wider Government to the transformation of our Economic and Public Policy statistics and analysis which enables us to progress at pace, and we have put in place the building blocks for an inclusive and sustainable business model.

Our achievements over the year have required us to think collectively as ‘One ONS’. The front-line successes have only been possible through the hard work of those involved in the process from end to end – survey collection, data ingest and processing through our data architecture and technical infrastructure, analysis and dissemination. All supported by our back-office functions – our procurement, human resource, finance and planning capabilities.

Challenges we have faced

The introduction to this section and the assessment of performance has highlighted the significant progress the organisation continues to make against the radical, ambitious, inclusive and sustainable drivers. As we emerge from the direct challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic we are transitioning to a new way of working that incorporates the positive aspects of being able to work anywhere, with the advantages of a transformed office space adapted for hybrid working.

As we strive to deliver ever more accessible, timely, high-quality outputs, we are dependent on our ability to engage and collaborate across Government to secure access to the data that underpins not only our core outputs, but also our transformation agenda. Maintaining and building these relationships will continue to be a key focus for ONS to unlock the potential of integrated data and to decrease our reliance on survey collection and the associated user-burden.

Our People plan clearly sets out the importance of our staff to the delivery of the UKSA strategy and ONS business plan. The challenge to attract and retain critical skillsets has been a priority focus for ONS in the last financial year and is set to continue into the next year with national labour market supply issues, in particular for the DDaT profession, but also analytical and project delivery disciplines. ONS is not alone in this challenge and will need to be innovative and deploy a wide range of initiatives to ensure we can continue to attract and retain the best people.

As the profile of ONS has increased since our successful response to the pandemic, so has the demand for our services – whether this is accessing or improving the timeliness and granularity of existing outputs or developing new outputs. This increased demand, while a positive reflection of the reputation of the organisation and the recognition of the importance of quality evidence to inform decision-making, it comes with the additional challenge of managing that demand whilst maintaining a pin sharp focus on our core strategy. Our new prioritisation, demand management and strategic resourcing frameworks will support this requirement, but there is still work to do to embed these into the
culture of the organisation.

There is also an emerging opportunity to recognise and effectively utilise the value of the ONS brand and outputs to contribute towards the sustainability of the organisation. ONS holds a unique position within Government and is a trusted interface with other sectors. Our products are in high demand and yet we continue to deliver with constrained resources. This presents both a challenge and a potential opportunity for the future of ONS. Whilst this section provides a summary of the key challenges we have faced in 2021/22, we set out our key ongoing risks within the Governance Statement on pages 60 to 63.

COVID-19 impacts

The impacts of the pandemic can be summarised under two broad headings – how the organisation has continued to assist in the nation’s response and recovery to the pandemic; and how the pandemic has impacted upon us as an organisation including how we have interacted with our third-party suppliers.

Assisting the wider response to the pandemic

The preceding paragraphs in this section of the report go into detail as to the role ONS has played in assisting in the UK’s response and recovery to the pandemic. The organisation has changed dramatically, with a significant increase in demand for statistics and analysis and expansion of its remit through its response to COVID-19 with a major focus on understanding the economic and social impact. This has however continued to place a significant strain at times on our people and resources. Whilst we have managed to make good progress across our strategic aims there is no doubt that our work related to COVID-19 has needed to take precedence at times over our other plans where we have faced constraints.

We have incurred significant additional costs associated with operating the COVID-19 Infection Survey, wider ancillary studies and the enhanced Opinions and Lifestyle Survey. These major activities have been funded in their entirety through central government or other government departments.

Internal impact

We have continued to manage impacts on our organisation, our staff and our ways of working as a direct result of the continuation of the pandemic through 2021/22. These impacts have continued to reduce capacity at times stretching our resources. A significant positive aspect has been our ability to effectively work remotely when needed to, helping transform how and where we work through our Evolving the Workplace programme. This is a testament to our ongoing investment in technology and infrastructure capabilities and the work of our IT services building positive outcomes from the learning we have taken from the pandemic.

Impacts on operational costs

Costs for office equipment and further IT equipment (such as laptops and peripherals) increased as expected in facilitating initial wholesale working from home and enabling ongoing hybrid working arrangements. We have also experienced additional facilities management costs associated with ensuring our estate is kept safe for those who have needed to access our site for critical activity or more widely in line with the periodic lockdown easing.

Netting off this additional cost is continued significant operational saving due to our inability to travel on official business either between our sites or elsewhere. This has changed during 2021/22 as the situation in respect of lockdowns across the nations has varied. However, as part of our cost management approach in 2021/22 we have reflected the anticipated ongoing reduced need to travel in reductions to organisational budgets.

We have continued to aid our staff during periods where we have not been able to permit wholesale access to our estate – again in line with central government guidance from Cabinet Office – in terms of increased costs that our staff have incurred as a result of working at home.

Looking ahead

The 2021 Spending Review (SR21) has established multi-year budgets across government. The outcomes of SR21 have driven prioritisation across the organisation and the latest Strategic Business Plan refresh in readiness for 2022/23.

The multi-year Spending Review settlement has provided more certainty, enabling us to plan into the longer term. Our strategic principles remain the same although we have reviewed our strategic objectives, streamlining them to improve clarity and ensure clear accountability for their delivery at the most senior levels in the organisation.

Our prioritisation framework has been developed to inform the development of the 2022/23 objectives. The 2022/23 business planning round involved numerous collaborative workshops to ensure that priorities were agreed, and cross-ONS dependencies were highlighted at an early stage in the planning cycle to support ‘enabling’ areas of ONS to develop practical schedules for delivery.

With agreed priorities and a one-ONS plan in place, the business will also move to a new rolling quarterly planning process to not only improve flexibility and responsiveness to changing priorities, but to also reduce and spread effort over the year. We published our refreshed Strategic Business Plan in June 2022.

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

We developed a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as part of our Strategic Business Planning during 2020/21. We have iterated these KPIs during 2021/22 to ensure that we maintain their ongoing fitness for purpose and relevance to organisational activity as it evolves. The KPIs are disaggregated by Strategic Driver and complement the progress reporting against our strategic objectives (as set out in Section 2.5 above) through our internal governance. Our performance against the KPIs for 2021/22 is set out below.

Radical

Ambitious

Inclusive

Sustainable

Resources and organisation

Financial management

We have continued to improve our internal business processes, raising financial awareness, providing expert advice and guidance and reporting key financial information through 2021/22.

Our income and expenditure remain significantly higher in 2021/22 than is traditionally the case and income has increased since 2020/21 as a result of the Programme funding received for the COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS), Integrated Data Programme (IDP) and the Ambitious Radical Inclusive Economic Statistics (ARIES) Programme.
We have successfully managed our financial control totals for the year – which given continued increased scale and complexity is positive. We have returned un-utilised programme funding to HM Treasury through the Supplementary Estimates fiscal event (November 2021) during the year as part of our responsible approach to managing our finances. We will introduce a greater internal challenge in future years as part of our Supplementary Estimates preparation as part of our ongoing improvement to financial management.

We have complied with all HM Treasury expenditure control approvals processes, secured a comprehensive multi-year Spending Review (SR21) settlement and managed the standard annual fiscal events within the required timescales. Given the nature of our funding sources and operations in 21/22 – particularly in relation to the pandemic – we have needed to assist other government department colleagues in navigating their own internal governance, providing financial information and reporting expenditure including through variance analysis.

There were no specific efficiency targets set by the organisation or included within the HM Treasury budgetary settlement for financial year 2021/22. However, we have operated within core budgets that were frozen at 2020/21 levels in the 2020 Spending Review with the organisation having absorbed the impacts of cost inflation incurred during the year.

We have been able to re-purpose cost savings associated with decreased travel during the pandemic to meet increased costs associated with the pandemic – increased analysis associated with the UK response; increased cleaning and other safety measures across our estate; increased requirement for office equipment and IT to support working at home – without the need to call on central government emergency funding. We have also invested in an Evolving the Workplace project to ensure our Estate is fully equipped for hybrid working.

We managed to deliver savings within a number of our ring-fenced Programme budgets in 2021/22 whilst maintaining delivery, most notably relating to the Census 21 data collection activities. We also received a larger than anticipated VAT reclaim in relation to the significant uplift in CIS income leading to under expenditure against our baseline. We were able to secure significant cost savings through the re-procurement of third party services under the CIS programme in June 2021 which we were able to pass on to the funding department UKHSA.

Spending Review 2021 (SR21) provided us with a multi-year settlement over the three financial years 2022-23 through to 2024-25. The settlement provides funding certainty and supports the ongoing delivery of our strategy through a continuation of baseline funding plus specific programme funding allocations. We have set ourselves a challenging efficiency delivery agenda for the SR21 period which includes a need for all of our business areas to absorb the impacts of inflation and deliver sustained cost savings associated with discrete efficiency driving projects. We will use the efficiencies delivered to resolve inherent operational cost pressures and to progress wider organisational priorities that were not funded through the SR21 settlement. The Office for Statistics Regulation’s (OSR’s) budget forms part of the Authority’s wider accounts and whilst it is not disclosed separately in this report, defined parameters are applied in internal reporting.

Financial outcome

Total Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) for Resource expenditure reduced from £458.9m in 2020/21 to £448.9m in 2021/22. This figure is net of income and includes ring-fenced resource expenditure (depreciation). The reduction is due to a combination of offsetting movements with noteworthy items including the CDCTP Programme with expenditure decreasing following the Census Day in March 2021, and additional income being received for statistical research. These net resource expenditure reductions were partly offset with additional funding approved by HM Treasury for expenditure on IDSP and ARIES Programmes.

Taking the position gross of income receipts the expenditure figures increased to £867.1m in 2020/21 and £902.1m in 2021/22 respectively. These increases reflect an uplift in our expenditure funded via income from UKHSA in relation to CIS. Our 2021/22 financial statements include a full year’s income and expenditure for the Programme which was initiated in 2020/21. Integrated Data Service Programme (IDSP) expenditure has also accelerated with the Full Business Case approved by HM Treasury in August 2021 and progress made against delivery plans.

Significant Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme (CDCTP) expenditure also continued throughout 2021/22 as we progressed through the operational phases of Census 2021, albeit at lower levels than in 2020/21.
For a second consecutive year primarily as a result of CIS, our income increased from £408.2m in 2020/21 to £453.2m in 2021/22. This income was received from UKHSA in 2021/22. UKHSA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care who previously supplied ONS with CIS income finding.

Capital expenditure during the year increased by £12.9m to £25.3m in 2021/22 (£12.5m in 2020/21). Our capital expenditure is made up of £13.7m investment in development of assets and £11.7m of expenditure classified as capital expenditure under the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA10). The latter is not classified as capital expenditure under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The £12.9m increase in capital expenditure reflects an increase in our research work classified as capital expenditure (under ESA10), work on our Estate to ensure it is fully equipped for hybrid working and IDSP capital developments. Further information on our financial outturn is provided in the Financial Summary section on pages 71 to 72 and in our Accounts in chapter 4.

People capability

The Authority launched its five-year strategic plan in July 2020. Within the Authority we maintain a clear commitment to the development of all our people and ensuring skills development is accessible to all through a combination of accessible solutions that promote “learning in the flow of work” and ensuring those who may need a more focused approach benefit from publicised skills pathways and Diversity into Leadership programmes. Our approach has a strong focus on skills development that is both current and future focused and is aligned to our strategic resourcing framework.

The Authority is committed to the development of the professional skills and capabilities of all its people, which it supports through a blended learning approach. It is important that individuals can develop a lasting and fulfilling career through the Authority, supporting both attraction and retention ofhigh calibre employees. We have matured our approach to career pathways; and these are now accessible to all as skills pathways that support individuals to understand not only what they need to develop, but how to access that development. We have strengthened our commitment to the professional agenda by implementing dedicated support teams by profession to help individuals reach their full potential.

To develop and maintain an inclusive workforce, the Inclusion and Diversity plan was launched in 2020. Inclusion and Diversity is integral to the way in which the Learning Academy works; not only through ensuring all learning is fully accessible but by continuing to build on our knowledge and skills. The Learning Academy has strengthened its inclusion offer by building and launching an inclusion pathway that helps individuals navigate through developing their skills and knowledge in this area. The Academy has also added an additional dedicated Diversity into Leadership programme, Disability into Leadership, to supplement the well-established Women into Leadership and maturing Ethnic Minority into Leadership programmes.

The Authority’s approach to developing adaptive leaders, who understand the external environment, plan ahead, can flex and adjust, engender trust and inspire each other is through the adoption of an ambitious leadership programme. We are building and strengthening the leadership skills across the Authority through a range of learning interventions from Future and Senior Leaders Schemes; Leadership Development Pathways and New to Managing People in ONS.

We continue to strengthen our approach to Talent Management with talent and career development boards held from SCS to Grade 7. Succession planning has been a key priority in 21/22. The Authority continues to support the government’s apprenticeship initiatives by identifying roles within the organisation that can be filled by an apprentice and for AO to EO roles the Authority is taking an “apprentice first” approach.

The Authority adopts a continuous learning approach, encouraging personal growth and allowing colleagues to harness each other’s professional expertise. Working collaboratively across government we are building the skills of our professional staff by providing pathways for learning to support their continuous development. The Authority balances its approach between short term development and future skills requirement on a 3 to 5 year horizon to ensure that the Authority can ensure it has the right people with the right skills in the right jobs to deliver the Authority’s strategy.

Through our Learning Academy we provide skills and development opportunities through job shadowing, coaching, mentoring, secondments and loans. In 2021, the government mandate has strengthened the functional agenda and
we continue to build and mature our development and talent management approach for the Government Analysis Function to upskilling analysts across government using a One Analysis approach. This remains a key initiative as we go into 2022.

Corporate responsibility

Anti-corruption and anti-bribery measures

The Authority is committed to upholding high standards of honesty and integrity in all its activities. We operate a zero tolerance policy approach to those who commit fraud and all cases of irregularity are investigated and dealt with appropriately. All staff are required to act with honesty, integrity and to safeguard the public resources they are responsible for.

The Authority Counter Fraud Team maintains a Fraud, Bribery and Corruption policy which is made available to all staff via the internal intranet. The policy establishes clear expectations in terms of roles and responsibilities and what processes they need to follow to report any concerns regarding fraud, bribery and corruption. The team has undertaken a fraud risk assessment which identifies areas where the Authority may be susceptible to fraud and the controls in place to ensure the risks of fraud are minimised. This included running a number of fraud risk assessment workshops and training sessions.

This assessment will be regularly reviewed and feeds into a fraud workplan and supports the identification of areas for proactive fraud work led by the Fraud Officer. The team also provide fraud reports at least twice a year to the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. The counter-fraud team has not identified any material fraud for the period. The Authority continues to work on its commitments regarding counter-fraud, bribery and corruption, and to develop awareness and detection across the department.

All senior leaders in the organisation – interpreted here as members of the Senior Civil Service – are required to sign a declaration of interests and confirm a statement on related parties. In addition, all members of the procurement profession who hold contractual delegation are also required to sign the declaration. The Commercial Assurance Group which makes recommendations on commercial agreements convenes once a month as part of the Authority’s internal governance model.

Part of the standard agenda is a requirement of all members present to declare any specific interests in relation to any of the items for discussion at that meeting.

An ongoing register is maintained of all hospitality and gifts offered to Authority staff. All staff are aware of the civil service rules and the internal policy around acceptance of hospitality or gifts including the requirement to declare any offer. This register is periodically reviewed by the Authority Audit and Risk Assurance Committee to ensure adherence to policy. The last review took place in June 2022.

Other information in the public interest

Responding to members of the public

There have been zero complaints in 2021/22 (2020/21 zero) about the Authority by the Parliamentary Ombudsmen. All complaints have been resolved internally.

Whistleblowing arrangements

Making sure the Authority’s staff feel able to come forward with concerns is important in ensuring effective governance and management across the Authority.

The Authority’s Whistleblowing and Raising a Concern Policy encourages employees to raise concerns about wrongdoing, advises on the protection afforded to whistle blowers, and provides reassurance that concerns will be investigated responsibly and professionally. The Authority has also trained Nominated Officers in place who can be approached in relation to concerns. The policy and supporting guidance are accessible on the Authority’s intranet.

Respect for human rights

The Authority fully complies with the Human Rights Act 1998. The realisation of human rights correlates with the availability of sound official statistics. Statisticians play a critical role in supporting evidence- based policy and measuring civil, economic, political and social rights. In accordance with internationally accepted standards, starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the dissemination of relevant information is essential to meet peoples’ right to information and delivering on related entitlements to trustworthy statistics. Upholding rights, such as the rights to privacy and to be registered as well as the rights of statisticians themselves is vital to ensure robustness and independence in official statistical systems.

The Authority recognises these challenges and has established a clear Statement of Principles to ensure that we:

• exercise our statutory responsibilities in a fair, proportionate and accountable way, with due regard for principles of privacy and appropriate degrees of internal and external scrutiny
• work in a collaborative, transparent and fair manner with data suppliers, civil society and the general public, responding to any concerns or opportunities as they arise
• reinforce our full accountability to the UK Parliament and the devolved legislatures in exercising our statutory responsibilities

Sustainable development

It is the policy of the UK Statistics Authority (including the Office for National Statistics, its Executive Office) to conduct its operations in a manner that reflects a commitment to the protection of the environment, embeds the principles and priorities of the Government’s sustainable development strategy and complies with environmental laws and regulations.

Our Sustainable Development Policy states this will be met by:

• achieving continual improvement in environmental performance
• considering the environmental impact of our operations and prevent pollution and reduce carbon emissions
• aiming to meet the targets (KPIs) established by the Greening Government Commitments
• meeting all environmental legislative requirements
• complying with sustainable reporting requirements

Environmental performance

The Government’s Greening Commitments (GGC) have challenged us to reduce the environmental impact of our estate and operations. This section presents our progress against these KPIs and targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon and waste, on a yearly basis with the ultimate goal of net zero by 2050. During 2021 the baseline was reset to 2017/2018 with a change to the collection of direct emissions and flight data. Compared to the baseline, the initial results for 2021/22 are showing an 89% reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG).

Summary

Reduce our emissions

The Authority has been tasked with reducing the overall emissions by 38% and direct emissions by 43%.
The Greening Government Commitments (GGC) also challenges the Authority to reduce domestic flights by 30% against the new baseline figures from 2017/2018. The Authority has a travel policy which mandates that the cheapest method of transport be employed for any journey, which could encourage domestic air travel between the South East, North East and Scotland and Northern Ireland. Previous intervention projects have been put in place, however during the pandemic most flights were not operating resulting in much lower figures. Since flights have recommenced mid 2021 there has been a slow but steady increase in domestic flights but they are still well within target. GGC reporting is recording the number of international flights however it is worth noting that many of these flights are part of a FCDO funded division and therefore are being highlighted and demonstrated on an individual basis.

Improve our waste management

All information communication technology (ICT) equipment is disposed of via an established contract which helps ensure that all redundant ICT equipment is re-used or recycled responsibly.

The Authority has successfully reduced its overall tonnage of waste by 69% against the baseline figures. The Authority has also reduced paper use by 73% which is well ahead of a GGC target of a 50% reduction.

Water use

In 2021/2022, water consumption has been reduced by 8% against the baseline figures. This is on target for GGC despite having to rectify some substantial water leaks during this period.

Sustainable procurement

The Authority’s standard Terms and Conditions requires all suppliers to comply with our Sustainable Development Policy, which includes, but is not limited to, the conservation of energy, water, wood, paper and other resources, a reduction in waste, the phasing out of the use of ozone depleting substances and the minimisation of the release of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds and other substances damaging to health and the environment.

With the recent changes to procurement policy, the Authority has been able to fully embrace social value within a tender, placing it as a significant, mandated element of any evaluation. Key to the success of the implementation of social value is the ongoing work with our supply base to develop specifications and requirements that have sustainability at their heart.

The Authority extensively uses Public Sector Framework arrangements collaboratively managed by Government Organisations such as the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and the Government Digital Services’ (GDS). The CCS
and GDS Frameworks aim to encourage small and medium sized enterprises and local businesses to bid for work with support available to them if required.

The Authority continues to support the engagement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across our contract base. The requirements of the Government Buying Standards are issued to the Commercial Services team on a quarterly basis via the Commercial Update, which is a comprehensive review of all Procurement news and legislation. The quarterly updates also provide information from across the Commercial Team such as data from the Cabinet Office approved Commercial Pipeline as these assist the Team in reviewing opportunities that may be of interest to smaller or local business ensuring appropriate timetables and market engagement are utilised.

Food and catering

The provision of food and catering to colleagues and occupiers of the Authority’s estate has remained impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Basic catering services recommenced during the year, and all catering providers’ staff came off furlough when the scheme concluded. All contractors are required to adhere to our sustainable development policy, but covid secure arrangements have impacted this with the re-introduction of packaging that had previously been eradicated from the service.

The Authority will work with the catering providers to eradicate single use plastics, where possible during 2022/23 as the controls in place during the pandemic are removed from the Authority offices.

Sustainable construction

The Authority’s refurbishment and construction works are designed and built with the objective of improving the performance of the estate, and in so doing contribute to achievement of greening government commitments target.
For example, the installation of LED light fittings as standard, low flow taps and carpets with recycled backing. All contractors are required to complete a sustainability questionnaire used as part of the tender process and are required to source materials in line with the GBS.

Our Evolving the Workplace (Etw) programme has reused existing furniture where possible, and any surplus has been given to communities and charities with the residual planned for sustainable recycling through specialist vendors.

Biodiversity

The Authority complies with The Environment (Wales) Act 2016 Section 6 on Biodiversity. It does not have any responsibility for Sites of Special Scientific Interest but takes such action as it can, to promote, conserve and enhance biodiversity for example by specification of environmentally friendly measures in its Grounds Maintenance contract.
Project work is currently underway to increase our biodiversity credentials through the installation of beehives at both Newport and Titchfield offices, along with a wildflower area at Newport to increase local pollination opportunity.

Climate change adaptation

The Authority’s sustainable development action plan considers the long-term implications of its operations in relation to climate change. This action plan is updated yearly and assesses any risks of climate change, how the estate may require necessary adaption, is robust in the face of changing weather, extreme events and sea level rises from climate change.

Sustainable governance and decision making

Our sustainable development policy and action plan are embedded within our overall governance and decision making. Since 2017/18, when our Environmental Champions’ Group was initiated, many improvement projects
have been identified, elevated and presented to senior management for approval.

Examples of these projects are:

• removal of single use plastics across the estate
• a staff engagement project for World Environment Day (5 June), to improve recycling and plastic reduction.
• electric vehicle charging points have been installed at Newport during 18/19, and Titchfield late 2019/20. Due to the increase in demand, there will be potential to install further points.

Rural proofing

Our estate is not positioned in rural areas, nor do the estate’s operational policies affect rural areas.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond
National Statistician
UK Statistics Authority
6 July 2022