Inclusive Data Principle 7: Harmonisation

About Principle 7: Harmonised standards for relevant groups and populations should be reviewed at least every five years and updated and expanded where necessary, in line with changing social norms and respondent and user needs.

There are 23 commitments under Principle 7. Figure 8 shows the distribution of the commitments by their RAG status. 83% of the commitments were complete or green (52% and 30% respectively). Below we describe how the Government Statistical Service’s coherence work plan addresses this commitment.

Figure 8: RAG status for all 23 IDTF commitments under Inclusive Data Principle 7

Case study: An updated Coherence workplan for the Government Statistical Service (GSS), Office for National Statistics / Analysis Function

The ONS leads a work programme to improve statistical coherence across government departments and the four UK nations. The ONS published the Coherence of Statistics workplan on the Analysis Function website, which it updates on an annual basis. Statistical coherence is about bringing together outputs on the same topic to explain more effectively the part of the world they describe. As there are such a wide range of data sources and analysis being produced across government and the four UK nations, it is vital we ensure our users are aware of how these statistics relate to each other, and how they can be compared with other statistics to make sense of society.

The UK Conrcordat on Statistics supports this coherence work across the UK. This is a jointly agreed framework for statistical collaboration between the UK Government and the devolved governments for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The ONS has been working with producers of official statistics across the UK to produce a comprehensive work programme. This programme sets clear direction for future priorities, and summarises work underway on high-priority areas of shared interest, including:

• understanding economic recovery post pandemic
• cost of living
• health
• housing
• social care
• the environment
• And a broad range of other topics that are important across all countries of the UK.

A broad range of coherence work and analysis is highlighted through the Coherence of Statistics release relating to the National Statistician’s Inclusive Data Advisory Committee (NSIDAC) priority themes. Specifically on non-household population data, the People experiencing homelessness, England and Wales: Census 2021 was released in 2023, which provide insights that are supplementary to the regular official statistics on homelessness and rough sleeping.

Additionally, work on overarching equalities data is highlighted. Harmonisation and accessibility of statistics in relation to protected characteristics groups, people at greater risk of disadvantage, socioeconomic status and geography, is ongoing, and includes harmonised standards on topics such as socioeconomic background. Work with the Cabinet Office Equality Hub on data-related actions from the Inclusive Britain report has involved consulting on standards for ethnicity data and engaging with people across different ethnic groups to understand more effectively the language and terminology with which they identify.

A dedicated coherence page has also been produced on the ONS website for users to find official statistics produced by or for the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and the devolved governments more easily.  Forward plans include continuation of work with the devolved governments to publish new comparable UK-wide statistics for the number of young people ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’ (NEET).