Members:

• Dame Julia Cleverdon (Chair)
• Professor Anthony Heath (University of Oxford)
• Si Chun Lam (West Midlands Combined Authority)
• Dr Evelyn Collins (former Equality Commission for Northern Ireland); Honorary Professor at Queens)
• Professor Uzo Iwobi (Race Council Cymru)
• Nitesh Prakash (Bain & Company)

Office for National Statistics (ONS):

• Ruth Studley
• Fiona Dawe
• Dawn Snape
• Neil Bannister
• Nick Taylor
• Amie Dede-Benefor
• Ryan Hill
• Abygail Tustin
• Jessica Kempinski

Apologies:

• Louise Fryer (ONS)
• Richard Laux (Cabinet Office)
• Professor Tom Shakespeare (The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM))
• Professor Shannon Vallor (University of Edinburgh)
• Tina Chui (Statistics Canada)
• Lela Kogbara (Black Thrive Global)
• Sam Freedman (Institute for Government)

1. Welcome and introductions

2. Overview of the FPMS programme and progress to date

1. Ruth Studley presented the vision of the FPMS programme and its ambition to keep pace with societal changes by providing up-to-date information. The journey so far was laid out, as well as the high-level delivery goals for the next 12 months. It was acknowledged that there would be challenges to be addressed in ensuring data quality and the sustainability of the data supply. Ruth acknowledged the importance of inclusivity both in the data itself and in our wider engagement about the data as the programme progresses.
2. Committee members found the overview helpful and noted that the expertise of the committee may be better used in addressing challenges faced by the programme as well as receiving general progress updates and successes.

Action:

Future presenters should be asked to focus on current challenges as well as successes, enabling better use of the Committee’s expertise.

3. The Admin-based Census (ABC): progress to date – Nick Taylor

1. Nick provided an overview of the Admin-Based Census as an annual product to link individual-level data to other data sources, allowing timely insights. Current plans are for the development of platforms enabling cross-tabulation of sociodemographic characteristics data; derivation of population estimates at different geographic levels; and analysis of longitudinal data following people’s outcomes over time.
2. Nick emphasised the challenges of maintaining coherence across complex data systems and ensuring the stability and quality of data sources as well as robust coverage adjustment for different groups.
3. As the ABC will make use of Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) level data identifying the population usually resident in an area, committee members discussed the importance of ensuring inclusion of people who had multiple residencies or no permanent place of residence.

4. Inclusion of personal characteristics and attributes in the ABC – Neil Bannister

1. Neil stated the ambition to deliver inclusive data solutions in the ABC, involving a pragmatic and iterative approach. This will require identifying where there are specific data gaps in the admin-based data, such as missing or under-represented groups. Solutions can then be developed to fill the gaps, which may include working with local authorities (LAs) to source local data or conducting targeted surveys.
2. Particular challenges will be in determining “good enough” data coverage and balancing resources in finding data solutions for different sociodemographic characteristics. Next steps will include widening the coverage of different characteristics included in the ABC and tackling difficult concepts defined in different ways, like disability.
3. The discussion by Committee members focused on potential use of innovative approaches to boost data coverage which was viewed positively. The need to improve coherence and consistency of data collected by local authorities was also highlighted as a possible challenge to its effective use in the ABC.

5. Exploring pathways to inclusion/ exclusion in administrative data – Dawn Snape

1. Dawn presented on the work being developed by her teams exploring which groups are missing from admin data sources and why, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Dawn highlighted ongoing discovery work of non-household population groups in LA data as well as a study on the life experiences of Roma people, which aims to learn about their use of services and interactions with admin data.

6. Q & A session

1. Areas of discussion included:
   • How the variability of some characteristics over time could be difficult to capture and analyse in administrative data, including disability which can change over time.
   • Coverage issues and reasons for under-coverage may vary across groups with different sociodemographic characteristics and this must be considered. This may include instances where the participant may not want to disclose their characteristics in administrative data. It was suggested a ‘warning system’ be developed to indicate how much confidence there is in the reliability of the statistics produced.
   • Harnessing data from private companies was suggested as a useful avenue to explore while also noting several known barriers to doing so.

7. Finish and Close

1. Ruth Studley noted that engagement was a key theme arising during the meeting and that ONS is aware of the reticence certain groups may have in engaging with official agencies. ONS is focusing on the importance of citizen engagement to raise awareness of how data are used so that people may feel more confident about sharing their data and will ultimately be able to see themselves in the data and feel counted.
2. Dame Julia highlighted that, alongside practical measures, trust is a theme we need to return to in future meetings.

Action:

Slides to be shared with all members, inducing those not able to attend.