Members in attendance

  • Dame Kate Barker (Chair)
  • Jonathan Camfield (Lane Clark & Peacock)
  • Richard Gibson (Barnett Waddingham)
  • Michael Hardie (ONS)
  • Jenny King (Which?)
  • Ashwin Kumar (Manchester Metropolitan University)
  • Donna Leong (ONS), from item 4
  • Jill Leyland (Royal Statistical Society)
  • Ian Rowson (Independent Policy Analyst)
  • Daniela Silcock (Pensions Policy Institute)
  • James Smith (Resolution Foundation)
  • Geoff Tily (Trade Union Congress)
  • Carleton Webb (Bank of England), in place of Simon Hayes
  • Thomas Yeomans (HM Treasury), in place of Daniel Gallagher

Secretariat

  • Andy King (ONS)

Presenter

  • Tanya Flower (ONS), for items 1 to 3
  • Chris Payne (ONS)
  • Sofia Poni (ONS)

Observer

  • Catherine McGirr (ONS)
  • Becky Rhodes (ONS), from item 5

 

1. Introduction, apologies, and actions

  1. The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received from Jonathan Athow and Grant Fitzner.
  2. The minutes from the previous meeting (30 April 2021) were approved. The outstanding action on the Johnson Review will be discussed at item 5, while the outstanding action on the regional development work will be taken to a future meeting:

Action: ONS to present an update on regional development work. 

2. Update on the Alternative Data Sources Discovery

  1. Sofia Poni and Michael Hardie gave a presentation on the outcome of the Consumer Prices Alternative Data Sources (ADS) discovery and the timeline for ADS development.
  2. The following discussions have been redacted due to the market sensitive nature of the subject.

 3. Introduction to Business Change team and their workplan

  1. Andy King outlined the Consumer Prices Business Change team’s role and workplan for the coming year.
  2. The Panel were asked their views on establishing an ADS electronic newsletter. The Panel supported this as a means of reaching a wider range of users and felt either a quarterly basis or on a flexible basis (as the development work dictates) would be appropriate.

4. Progress update on private rental development

  1. The Chair welcomed Donna Leong to the meeting.
  2. Michael Hardie gave a verbal update of the ongoing private rental development work.
  3. The following discussions have been redacted due to the market sensitive nature of the subject.

Action: ONS to report back to the Panel with their private rental development communications plan.

5. Johnson Review recommendations in 2021

  1. Following up on the action from January’s APCP-S meeting, Chris Payne presented the recommendation for the 2015 Johnson Review of the then current and future user needs for consumer price statistics.
  2. The Johnson Review remains within this Panel’s terms of reference.

Action: ONS to publish a paper summarising the discussions of the Johnson Review recommendations.

Action: ONS to review the reference to the Johnson Review within the terms of reference (following the publication of the above paper).

6. Retail Prices Index Revisions Policy – feedback from APCP-T

  1. Michael Hardie gave a brief verbal updated on the next steps on this piece of work.
  2. The following discussions have been redacted due to the market sensitive nature of the subject.

7. AOB / Summary

  1. Michael Hardie mentioned that the OSR have published an assessment report of Living Costs and Food (LCF) survey and he reiterated that ONS is working on an extensive review the systems underpinning and quality assuring the LCF.
  2. The Panel discussed the proposed joint APCP Panel meeting provisionally scheduled for 15 October 2021.
  3. A Panel member asked ONS some specific questions relating to the current inflation figures and the publication of monthly movements.
  4. Michael Hardie responded with the offer to publish the class-level Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) and Consumer Prices Index (CPI) contributions, initially as an ad hoc publication with potential to be included in the monthly outputs, and to discuss the presentation of the monthly growth rates.
  5. The Chair thanked the Panel for their contributions to today’s meeting.

Action: ONS to canvass attendance for a joint meeting in either October 2021 or Spring 2022.

The next Panel meeting will take place at 10:30 on 22 October 2021.