The Chair welcomed the Committee to the meeting. Apologies were received from Guy Nason, James Brooks, and Sarah Moore. Neil Townsend attended as Sarah Moore’s delegate.
Members requested that the minutes were written with more detail and published more quickly on the Authority website, well ahead of the following meeting.
Members discussed the governance slide and the distinction between the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and UK Statistics Authority governance. The diagram could be improved through showing how the advisory and statutory committees interact with the formal structure.
2. User engagement strategy
Neil Townsend introduced progress on the user engagement strategy. He noted that due to changes within the ONS, communication resources had been more focused on immediate requirements and the strategy had not progressed as much as they had hoped.
Members heard of recent examples of ONS user engagement, such as the launch of the Census 2031 Topic Consultation, extensive engagement from the Director General for Surveys and Economic and Social Statistics, working in partnership with the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to hold a series of roundtables, and, a webinar series that had received a high level of attendance.
Members discussed the update. The following points were raised in discussion:
considering the extent of change within ONS, members understood the consequent delays to the user engagement strategy and response to the Assembly while urging that these were progressed as much as possible and kept stakeholders engaged;
members expressed their support for local and subnational data and expressed concern around ONS’ reconsideration of their subnational statistics portfolio in their prioritisation decisions;
the update should be clear to users when they should expect the next round of engagement to promote transparency and maintain relationships with users;
members appreciated the evident breadth of user engagement but suggested that this was fed back to this Committee more thoroughly;
the Committee thought they could be better utilised if given foresight of likely prioritisation decisions, to provide ONS with a user perspective and to support ONS with how best to engage users when communicating prioritisation decisions;
ONS’ greater focus on core economic statistics and government users of statistics provided an opportunity for the National Statistician, as head of the GSS, to engage with other initiatives and channels to represent other users; and
there was scope to improve engagement with smaller businesses, members discussed the importance of the business sector as users of data and respondents to surveys.
ONS would consider how to feedback the user engagement work across the ONS to NSEUAC for their consideration and input. The Committee discussed the potential impact of the new National Statistician in shaping and championing the strategy.
3. Response to the Statistics Assembly
Neil Townsend updated members on the Authority response to the Assembly detailed recommendations. He informed members that although this had been planned for the end of 2025, following conversations at the National Statistician’s Executive Group (NSEG), it had been pushed back to spring 2026 due to the volume of work required. ONS proposed to publish a response to the Assembly in December 2025, covering the four high level priorities, with an update on the detailed recommendations published in the first half of 2026.
Members heard that the Assembly recommendations were advisory, and the Authority sought to be realistic and transparent about what could be achieved.
Members discussed the update. The following points were raised in discussion:
members expressed disappointment in the delay to publication on the detailed points, but acknowledged the workload pressures on colleagues;
the Committee asked to see a draft of the December response before it was published to provide support and suggestions from a user perspective;
resourcing should be considered across the GSS to maximise impact and ensure workstreams are best placed;
the refreshed National Statistician role allowed for an outward look across the GSS to ensure GSS needs and goals are met while ensuring ONS had sufficient resources to support its recovery;
the Assembly showed significant support for subnational statistics, and the ONS decision to reduce this work was a risk; and
while a lot of work had been done since the Assembly, the ONS could improve the way this was communicated back to users.
The Committee commended the success of the Assembly and appreciated the resource challenges in taking forward its recommendations. They urged the ONS to provide transparent updates on the timeline of future updates with users. ONS agreed to share the timetable of future updates with the Committee in their next update.
4. Any other business
The Chair highlighted the benefit the Committee could provide to ONS in its prioritisation conversations, and the Committee agreed it should hear from ONS Senior Leadership at the next meeting to provide insight to the decisions taken.
A potential gap in ONS membership at the Committee was identified and June Bowman would consider who would be best to sit on the Committee.
Secretariat would circulate the list of future speakers for members to provide input and suggestions.
