The Chair welcomed members to the meeting and informed the Committee that the recruitment for two independent members had concluded. Darren Morgan was successful and was welcomed to his first Regulation Committee meeting. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter was also successful and would be an independent member of the Committee after his term as a non-executive director (NED) of the Authority Board ended.
Members reviewed and approved the previous minutes, pending some minor wording changes.
The Chair informed Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) colleagues that from June, a fifteen-minute NED session would be introduced prior to the main Committee meetings.
2. Update from the Director General for Regulation
The Director General for Regulation presented an overview of OSR activities since the March meeting, highlighting work related to the Wales and Scotland elections, and local council elections. In particular, an intervention relating to the language of council tax ‘freezes’ has prompted further casework and OSR were considering how to respond effectively and consistently to the public’s concerns.
OSR provided an update on the regulatory services, outlining ongoing and planned work. The Committee were asked to agree two proposals for accreditation of official statistics. OSR proposed that NHS Education Scotland had met the requirements of the Assessment Review of NHS workforce in Scotland, and the Committee approved the recommendation for accredited official statistics status. Secondly, OSR considered the requirements and recommendations of the England and Wales Census 2021 Phase 3 Assessment Report to have been met, and the Committee approved accredited official statistics status for these statistics. The Committee discussed ongoing concerns around onward use of these statistics, such as in mid-year estimates, but thought enough had been done to accredit these statistics.
OSR raised the issue that a number of suspended accreditations had exceeded one year, and were now due for review. This could lead to a number of cancellations over the next few months.
OSR noted that the upcoming elections in Scotland, Wales and England have resulted in a small surge in casework across a number of topics, and that the annual report of casework for 2025/26 would be brought to the next Regulation Committee meeting in June.
OSR had tracked engagement around the launch of the Code of Practice 3.0 and were progressing the scoping work related to the evidence gap left by the Public Confidence in Official Statistics survey.
On automation, in-house data scientists were working towards how to effectively use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation in projects, as well as developing an AI policy. The Committee were reassured that AI was currently used to support colleagues, and was not yet fully implemented in operational processes before the approval of a relevant policy.
3. Compliance Review: ONS Mid-Year Population Estimates for England and Wales
Following the presentation of emerging findings at the March meeting, OSR presented the draft report of their compliance review of the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Mid-Year Estimates for England and Wales. Users and OSR had confidence in the national level population estimates, but there were quality concerns at a subnational level. The draft report set out requirements and recommendations aiming to address these concerns. The report had been shared with ONS for factual comment.
The Committee discussed the report. The following points were raised in discussion:
the fact the methodology did not allow for minor tweaks at a local level was challenging, and a method of measuring quantitative uncertainties would be useful;
the Population Statistics System Committee (PSSC) would assess progress against the report on a six-monthly basis. This aimed to encourage a formal means of oversight, but OSR was not delegating responsibilities and would still be responsible for assessing these statistics against the standards of the Code;
OSR should encourage ONS to promote and update the population statistics and sources guidance, to ensure it was accessible and outlined to users which population estimates should be used for which purpose;
OSR were pleased with the response from ONS, who recognised the flaws in the statistics and were working to correct them, independently of OSR’s formal intervention. They would continue to have a collaborative and constructive working relationship;
these statistics have an important role in sub-national funding allocations. It is important that users know how best to use these statistics given the limitations identified; and
if casework relating to these statistics was raised to OSR, ONS would be assessed based on their level of engagement with the stakeholder and the effort made to understand their concerns and explore options to resolve them.
The Chair noted the Committee’s concerns for the impact on local authorities and explored OSR’s options to best support users while ONS resolved quality issues. The Committee approved the compliance review and noted that subsequent public correspondence would reiterate to ONS the expectations, impact, and necessary information required by users.
4. Scottish Census Phase 3
OSR presented the draft report of the Phase 3 Assessment of the 2022 Census in Scotland. This was the final assessment report in the suite of assessment work for the 2021/2022 Census round. OSR concluded a positive assessment on National Records Scotland’s (NRS) response to the Phase 2 requirements and found census outputs met user needs. The committee approved the OSR recommendation to designate these as accredited official statistics.
Members discussed the report. The following points were raised in discussion:
NRS showed a culture of innovation and collaboration, and used innovative data solutions to overcome challenges in the expected response rates;
the flexible data builder was a comprehensive tool, but was too granular for lay users; and
OSR commended NRS’s focus on outputs and user needs, proactive engagement, and their transparent communication of quality issues and uncertainty.
The Committee responded positively to the report and noted NRS’s thorough approach to engagement. The report was approved for publication.
5. Intelligent Transparency: Public Use of Statistics Profile
OSR presented an update on their ongoing work around intelligent transparency. Since the March meeting, OSR had developed a minimum viable product of a Public Use of Statistics Profile to assess departments’ compliance with intelligent transparency and Standards for Public Use of Statistics, Data and Wider Analysis.
Members heard that the profiles presented a combination of quantitative measures, for example citing sources, and qualitative measures, for example self-assessments by producers and an overall narrative provided by OSR. Stakeholder engagement was ongoing, and the next steps would be to take the proposal to the Quarterly Heads of Profession (HoP) meeting for feedback.
Members discussed the update. The following points were raised in discussion:
members acknowledged the resource required to pursue this project to a high standard. The project roadmap included review points that would allow OSR to assess progress against the timeline and if adequate resources were available and dedicated to the work. OSR recognised the importance of user engagement and buy-in to ensure success, and therefore, the resource required for sufficient user engagement;
stakeholder engagement was ongoing but there had been positive engagement with HoPs, who saw the value in the tool;
quantitative measures would allow OSR to track improvement for certain measures;
there was emphasis that the proposal in its current form was the minimum viable product, and would be improved continuously. Members considered that the output would be public, and agreed to develop the product from a cautious starting position;
where possible, the assessment should be simple to reduce the burden on responding departments;
the product aimed to show how well departments complied with the standards, and where there was need for improvement. Stakeholders appreciated this was a complex project, and OSR sought to minimise competition or create perverse incentives, and would publish outcomes with supporting narrative to draw out important context.
The Committee considered the progress made in the project, and endorsed the proposal for further engagement with HoPs. Members understood that there was flexibility in the timeline to maintain high quality standards, and would hear the final proposal at the September meeting.
6. Economic Statistics
OSR presented their initial thoughts on the ONS Economic Statistics Plan (ESP) Quarterly update, which was published on 11 April, in preparation for their formal public response. Members heard that OSR were still consulting with stakeholders, but that OSR had heard consistent views so far.
OSR highlighted that the update showed clear and welcome progress since December 2025 but noted challenges around the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), implementation of the Statistical Business Register (SBR) and response rates to social surveys. OSR acknowledged the thorough and clear assessment of ONS’ position, but would encourage publications to state the key risks and challenges more clearly, make the updates more concise, and consider visual tools to improve presentation of the information. OSR would also encourage ONS to link milestones and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to topic areas, and to show the percentage of milestones completed, to convey the distribution of completed milestones across areas.
OSR considered the July update, which would mark one year since the Devereux Review and Recovery Plans, to be an important opportunity for ONS to improve user focused reporting, and to establish a plan that commanded confidence of users.
The Committee thanked OSR for the update, and agreed that members would review and provide feedback on the draft before publication.
7. Evaluation Strategy
OSR presented a revised evaluation strategy, with refined measures and theories of change. The measures would assess OSR’s progress against the four themes outlined in their strategy. Members were asked to agree the next steps to continue work throughout the summer with a plan to operationalise the measures in the autumn.
Members discussed the update. The following points were raised in discussion:
significant progress had been made to produce clear and tangible outputs;
there was value in keeping the tool simple and focused to ensure it did not become an onerous task for OSR;
members considered how to evaluate OSR’s impact and effectiveness, and discussed how producers’ timeliness of responding to requirements and recommendations could be reflected in the KPIs; and
it could be possible to caveat to users where progress has been made against requirements and recommendations, even if OSR could not consider the requirement or recommendation as complete. This could be helpful to reflect factors outside of OSR’s control in the KPIs and Management Information.
The Committee supported the proposal and commended the extent of work completed since the March meeting. The Committee approved the planned next steps.
8. OSR approach to methodology
OSR presented a paper on OSR’s current approach to regulating methodology. Members heard OSR’s current approach to reviewing and providing assurance on statistical methodology, proposed clarified definitions of terminology, and proposed development of a framework to support regulation of methodology.
Members discussed the update. The following points were raised in discussion:
producers should be encouraged to consider the entire methodology throughout the production cycle, rather than place emphasis on analytical methods;
the framework intended to support capability building, and aimed to be less resource intensive once established, but OSR acknowledged this could produce follow-up assurance work; and
when Regulation Committee members met with HoPs, methodology was a prominent theme, and this approach aimed to fill an identified gap in the system.
The Committee were supportive of the proposed approach, and noted that this would support OSR‘s strategic aim to be a credible and rigorous regulator.
9. Horizon Scanning
The Director General mentioned OSR’s interventions related to the devolved and local elections. The Committee discussed Government Statistical System (GSS) concerns of strained resource across the system, and OSR’s role to support producers.
10. Any other business
No other business was raised.
Regulation Committee would next meet on 11 June in London.
