Introduction
The Inclusive Data Taskforce (IDTF) recommendations and Implementation Plan provide a framework for monitoring the progress across the UK government, devolved governments, civil society and academia, towards greater inclusivity of UK data and evidence.
The IDTF was convened by the National Statistician in 2021, and while responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the recommendations sits within the Office for National Statistics (ONS), this programme has been embraced across government and sectors in the UK nations.
Implementation of the IDTF recommendations has far-reaching consequences for data collection, statistics and analysis across the UK statistical system. The overarching aim of the Inclusive Data Taskforce programme is to embed inclusivity as standard practice across the UK statistical landscape in a sustainable way.
The progress made towards the recommendations over the past few years throughout the public sector is demonstrated within this report, which sets out information on the status of commitments by each of the 8 Inclusive Data Principles:
Inclusive Data Principle 1:
Create an environment of trust and trustworthiness which allows and encourages everyone to count and be counted in UK data and evidence.
Inclusive Data Principle 2:
Take a whole system approach, working in partnership with others to improve the inclusiveness of UK data and evidence.
Inclusive Data Principle 3:
Ensure that all groups are robustly captured across key areas of life in UK data and review practices regularly.
Inclusive Data Principle 4:
Improve the UK data infrastructure to enable robust and reliable disaggregation and intersectional analysis across the full range of relevant groups and populations, and at differing levels of geography.
Inclusive Data Principle 5:
Ensure appropriateness and clarity over the concepts being measured across all data collected.
Inclusive Data Principle 6:
Broaden the range of methods that are routinely used and create new approaches to understanding experiences across the population of the UK.
Inclusive Data 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.
Inclusive Data Principle 8:
Ensure UK data and evidence are equally accessible to all, while protecting the identity and confidentiality of those sharing their data.
A case study of projects linked to each of the Principles is also included, to evidence the approach and impact of the varying work ongoing to meet the recommendations and demonstrate the variety of work across government and with under-represented groups. The case studies included in this report were selected because the work featured one or more of the priority groups for the next financial year, which are set out in the Workplan 2024-2025 section of this report.
Data were collected for this report from all 29 commitment owners across government, the devolved governments and the third sector. The status of commitments reflect updates received between February and May 2024.
Considerable progress has been made since the commitments were established in 2022, despite pressures on resource and funding. Figure 1 shows the distribution of all IDTF commitments using a traffic light signal system, in which:
- complete signifies the work the commitment set out has been completed
- green signifies the work is on track
- amber signifies the work has been delayed
- and red signifies the work has been significantly delayed or paused.
Overall, 43% of commitments have been completed and 41% are making good progress. 10% are experiencing delays, and 6% are on hold for reasons including changes in departmental priorities.