Introduction
This advice was sent by the Methodological Assurance Review Panel to the National Statistician in November 2023, as part of the Future of Population and Migration (FPMS) consultation. It has been published in June 2025 as part of the suite of evidence to accompany the Future of Population and Migration Statistics recommendation publication.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been exploring the potential future of population and migration statistics, and is currently engaged in a consultation with users of these statistics and experts in these fields to gather user needs and advice to feed into decisions on the direction taken developing these statistics.
As part of this process, the Methodological Assurance Review Panel (MARP) have provided advice on a number of methodological papers which underpin the proposals outlined in the consultation, and have offered expertise on the topic to the National Statistician ahead of his advice to inform the UK Statistic Authority’s recommendation.
The MARP’s purpose is to provide external, independent assurance and guidance on statistical methodology underpinning ONS statistical production and research. This includes identifying significant gaps and risks in methods, and making suggestions for mitigation. It also includes reviewing methods being developed for major ONS programmes and contributing to their continuous improvement, and to provide oversight of methodological deep dives the ONS may undertake across its portfolio.
The panel consists of Sir Bernard Silverman (chair), Ana Basiri, Oliver Duke-Williams, Carl Emmerson, Nik Lomax, and Natalie Shlomo. The panel previously included David Martin for earlier papers. Carl Emmerson joined the panel in 2023. More information on the panel’s membership and work can be found on the MARP webpages of the UK Statistics Authority website.
This note provides a summary of the papers reviewed and the key points and feedback provided by MARP.
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