Overview

Objectives

The Statistics Board is an independent government body that reports directly to the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 established the Statistics Board (more commonly referenced as the UK Statistics Authority [UKSA]) with the 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.

The collective mission of the official statistics system is to provide high quality data and analysis to inform the UK, improve lives and build the future. The Statistics Board’s remit covers the three principal elements of the UK official statistics system:

• The Government Statistical Service (GSS), which is the cross-government community of all those involved in the production of official statistics in the UK.
• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) which is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority and the largest producer of official statistics in the UK.
• The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) which is the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority. It assesses official statistics for compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, reports on system-wide issues and on how statistics are used, celebrating when the standards are upheld and challenging publicly when they are not.

Strategic Direction and Key Goals

Statistics Board/UK Statistics Authority Strategy

2023/24 is the fourth year of the UKSA Strategy ‘Statistics for the Public Good: Informing the UK. Improving Lives. Building the Future’. The strategy sets out the direction and the core principles that underpin the work of the statistical system over the five-year period of 2020/21 – 2024/25:

• Radical in taking opportunities to innovate and collaborate, using data for the public good. This means seizing opportunities and being prepared to take action where the risks of inaction are often greater.
• Ambitious in setting out to answer the critical research questions the public needs answers to, and informing the decisions that citizens, businesses and civil society take. This means anticipating the data, insights and understanding the UK needs, being boldly innovative with our methods and sources, and responding rapidly and transparently to reach the widest audience that we can.
• Inclusive in our approach to workforce, talent management, and the design of data, statistics and analysis. This means ensuring our statistics and our workforce reflect the experiences of everyone in our society so that everyone counts, and is counted, and no one is forgotten.
• Sustainable in delivering a unique service in a way which delivers value for money through partnership and collaboration. This means supporting and stewarding the UK’s statistical infrastructure and collaborating with the expertise of the UK’s scientific community, academia, and the commercial sector, learning from each other.

The different parts of the statistical system will contribute to delivery of the objectives set out in the strategy, in different ways.

The 2024/25 Strategic Business Plan – ONS sets out how the ONS will deliver its contribution to the UKSA strategy in 2024/25.

The 2024/25 Strategic Business Plan – OSR  sets out how the OSR will deliver its contribution to the UKSA strategy in 2024/25.

Ambit

The Statistic’s Board Ambit is as follows:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL)

Expenditure arising from:

The collection, preparation and dissemination of economic, social, labour market and other statistics; undertaking and commissioning statistical research, and assisting statistical research by providing access to data; promoting and safeguarding the quality of official statistics, monitoring the production and publication of official statistics; conducting a programme of assessment of existing and candidate National Statistics against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics; providing analysis of statistics to enhance understanding; coordinating the design, collection, preparation, supply, quality management of the UK’s European statistics, provision of business support and IT services and associated non-cash items. Undertaking of various roles in an international context.

Income arising from:

Provision of social surveys and the provision of other services (statistical and corporate); provision of statistical related IT platforms to other public sector organisations; recovery costs of shared projects; sales of statistical data supply services, analyses and publications; research grants or funding for Statistical Research; receipts from EU and other overseas contracts; rental income; recovery of Apprenticeship Levy; the provision of business support services and through the sale of fixed assets.

Annually Managed Expenditure (AME)

Expenditure arising from:

Creation of provisions in respect of onerous contracts; early departure costs; and other provisions and associated non-cash items.

Spending controls

The Statistics Board’s net spending is broken down into several different spending totals, for which Parliament’s approval is sought.

The spending totals which Parliament votes are:

• Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (“Resource DEL”): a net limit comprising day to day running costs, less income for statistical data research and property; and includes depreciation (ring fenced budget).
• Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (“Capital DEL”): investment in capital equipment/projects.
• Annually Managed Expenditure (“AME”): Spending included in departmental budgets, but is difficult to predict, such as Legal or Early departure provisions.
• Net Cash Requirement (“NCR”): designed to cover the elements of the above budgets which require the Statistics Board to pay out cash in year.

Comparison of net spending totals sought

The table below shows how the net spending totals sought (movement) for the Statistics Board compared with the opening budget for this year as set in Spending Review 2021 (“SR21”):

A breakdown of spending and income within the net total is shown in section 2.1.

Key drivers of spending changes since the original budget this year

Net Resource DEL has increased by £74.968m from the original 2024/25 budget set out in the SR21 settlement letter. The main reasons for this increase are:

• +£50.240m: Reserve claim for the Future of Population and Migration Statistics (FPMS) Programme
• +£18.800m: Reserve claim for Surveys
• +£8.080m: Reserve claim for the National Statistician’s review of Public Sector Productivity (PSP) Statistics
• +£1.139m: Pre-agreed reserve claims from the Labour Markets Evaluation and Pilots (LMEP) fund for ‘Endometriosis and labour market outcomes in women in England’ (£0.429m), ‘National labour market outcomes of bariatric surgery and diabetes prevention programmes’ (£0.432m) and ‘Relationship between musculoskeletal diagnosis and surgery and employment status and income using national linked data’ (£0.278m)
• +£0.162m: Budgetary impact of IFRS 16. This includes an increase of depreciation budget of £5.206m, partly offset by a reduction in non-ring-fenced Resource (DEL) of £5.044m
• -£1.993m: Return of funding originally delegated for the Health and Social Care Levy
• +£3.455m Budget Cover Transfer (BCT) with the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) for support on levelling-up activity
• +£2.000m: BCT with Home Office for Crime Survey expansion
• +£0.085m: BCT with Home Office for Drug Misuse Study
• -£7.000m: Return of depreciation budget no longer required

Net Capital DEL has increased by £10.577m from the original 2024/25 budget set out in the SR21 settlement letter. The main reasons for this increase are:

• +£6.697m: BCT with DLUHC for levelling-up work
• +£3.880m: Reserve claim for the Future of Population and Migration Statistics (FPMS) Programme

Further detail is provided in the Explanations of changes in spending and income section.

New policies and programmes; ambit changes

There are currently no new policies or programmes applicable to the Statistics Board.

Spending and income trends

The charts below show the overall expenditure trends for the last ten years. The main driver for the steady increase in gross operating costs over the period is the delivery of the 2021 Census. Census Day was 21 March 2021 with activity and funding reducing by £214.4m between 2021/22 and 2022/23. Funding ended in 2023/24, aligned with the successful conclusion of the 2021 Census programme. The continuation of the FPMS programme and other items funded from the Reserve at Main Estimates has led to a net increase in forecast expenditure for 2024/25 compared with 2023/24.

The position over the past few years has also been significantly impacted by the Authority’s work in response to the pandemic through the COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) and wider studies resulting in a large spike in expenditure and income in 2020/21 and 2021/22. The CIS Digital delivery model and programme continued throughout 2022/23 but at a markedly reduced cost – with a corresponding lower income. A smaller winter surveillance programme was in operation during 2023/24. These workstreams have been funded via the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

CDEL expenditure trends reflect the build of digital assets as part of Spending Review 2015 together with the gradual movement away from capital build to cloud based technologies since the end of 2018/19. The 2021/22 increase in capital spend reflects the increase in our research work classified as capital expenditure (under ESA10 protocols) and work to our estate. Further increases are seen in 2022/23 mainly driven by the technical impacts of the adoption of IFRS 16 from April 2022 resulting in an increase in capital assets held on the balance sheet. Capital expenditure has reduced back down in 2023/24 following the one-off IFRS16 adoption event. This gradual decline continues in 2024/25.

Administration costs and efficiency plans

The Statistics Board does not have RDEL-Administration budget, all funding is classed as RDEL-Programme.

As part of SR21 the Statistics Board committed to identify and deliver recurring 10% of baseline budget savings by 2024/25 for internal reuse to achieve strategic priority goals. Following the Autumn Statement 2022 and the subsequent Efficiency Savings Review in February 2023 a further plan for enhanced efficiencies and cost savings was developed. These plans will continue to deliver cost reductions to be re-invested through the rest of the SR21 period.

All efficiencies are included (net) within control totals. The Authority will operate within all control totals across this period, therefore achieving its financial targets as agreed with HM Treasury.

Funding: Spending Review and Budgets

In addition to the Funding allocated to the Statistics Board for 2024/25 through the 2021 Spending Review, the Authority received the following additional DEL funding at the Main Estimates 2024/25:

• +£54.120m: Reserve claim to fund FPMS programme (£50.240m RDEL and £3.880m CDEL)
• +£18.800m: RDEL Reserve claim for Surveys
• +£8.080m: RDEL Reserve claim for the National Statistician’s review of Public Sector Productivity (PSP) Statistics
• -£1.993m: Return of RDEL funding for Health and Social Care Levy
• +£0.162m: Budgetary Impact of IFRS16, increase to Depreciation charges (£5.206m), and reduced RDEL expenditure (£5.044m)
• +£12.237m: Budget Cover Transfers (BCTs) with DLUHC, Home Office and Cabinet Office (£5.540m RDEL and £6.697m CDEL)
• -£7.000m: Return of depreciation budget no longer required
• +£1.139m: Pre-agreed RDEL reserve claims from the Labour Markets Evaluation and Pilots (LMEP) fund for ‘Endometriosis and labour market outcomes in women in England’ (£0.429m), ‘National labour market outcomes of bariatric surgery and diabetes prevention programmes’ (£0.432m) and ‘Relationship between musculoskeletal diagnosis and surgery and employment status and income using national linked data’ (£0.278m)