1. 1300 – 13:05 (5 Mins) – Introduction – Sir Bernard Silverman
2. 13:05 – 13:10 (5 mins) – Actions Update – Rob Turner
3. 13:15 – 14:15 (60 Mins) – EAP157 – 2023 recommendation guiding aims – Larry Bartleet
4. 14:20 – 14:35 (15 Mins) – Census Update – Jon Wroth-Smith
5. 14:35 – 14:50  –  Break
6. 14:50 – 15:20 (30 Mins) – EAP159 – Weighting class adjustment and population size estimation for Census – Owen Abbott
7. 15:20 – 16:20 (60 Mins) – EAP158 – Methods for 2021 Census playbook – Owen Abbott
8. 16:20 – 16:30 (10 Mins) – Any other business – Sir Bernard Silverman

Panel Members

• Sir Bernard Silverman (Chair)
  Dr Oliver Duke-Williams
• Dr Nik Lomax
• Prof Natalie Shlomo

Office for National Statistics

• Owen Abbott (ONS Deputy Lead)
• Cal Ghee (ONS Attendee)
• Gareth Powell (ONS Attendee)
• Jon Wroth-Smith (ONS Attendee & Presenter)
• Gee-Mei Redgwell (Presenter)
• Steven Dunstan (Presenter)
• Larry Bartleet (Presenter)
• Rob Turner (Secretariat)

1 –Introduction

1. Sir Bernard welcomed the panel and ONS attendees to the meeting.

2 – Actions Update

1. ONS provided an update on all currently open actions.
2. The panel agreed to close A65 and A78 due to limited capacity to produce now that Census operations are live. ONS suggested these could both be reassessed in Census evaluation.

3 – EAP157 – 2023 recommendation guiding aims

1. ONS presented on 2023 recommendation work, focussing on the “lenses” that will be used to assess progress towards the recommendation.
2. The panel suggested that although EAP157 highlighted some potential use cases of social statistics, it could elaborate more about other potential research areas, for instance in the private sector, genealogy industry and potential uses which are currently unknown.
3. The panel commended the ambition of the goals but suggested in some areas the lenses set out goals that may be unfeasible, especially in areas where the lens referred to quality improvements relative to the Census. ONS responded that the lenses are deliberately ambitious so that any areas that require improvement can be set out in or before the recommendation.
4. The panel discussed cost effectiveness considerations but acknowledged that this topic was outside the remit of the group.
5. Collaboration with academia on 2023 recommendation was raised by the panel with ONS stating that this is difficult due to data access agreements. The panel suggested early engagement with research centres might make it easier to incorporate access for external researchers into the data requests. ONS have agreed to look into this internally.

4 – Census Update

1. ONS updated the panel on Census operations.

5 – EAP159 – Weighting class adjustment and population size estimation for Census

1. ONS presented on work looking at a weighting class adjustment to account for Census under-coverage.
2. The panel commented that, due to the weighting classes only being applied at household level, one could achieve better results if an age/sex distribution could be used, but ONS stated that this would not be possible in situations where weighting-classes were being considered.

6 – EAP158 – Methods for 2021 Census playbook

1. ONS presented on the 2021 Census playbook, outlining strategies for mitigating scenarios where the standard design may not perform sufficiently well.
2. The panel questioned whether the strategies outlined would still be required or if these contingency plans are no longer required. ONS replied that most scenarios would not be implemented unless needed, which would become clear after the Census Coverage Survey completes in August.

7 – Any other business

1. The panel agreed to schedule future monthly meetings in the first week of a month, rather than the last week of the preceding month, if possible.
2. The panel agreed a process for providing updates to papers, whereby updated submissions may be published at the request of the authors alongside the version that was brought to the panel.