The minutes of the previous meeting were discussed, members approved the minutes pending a minor wording change.
2. Update on meeting with OSR staff
The Chair and members discussed a meeting held with Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) staff on 22 October. This was held in response to action 13/2025 to improve visibility and trust of Board Non-Executive Directors (NED) and to offer a different perspective. The Chair expressed interest in holding similar future meetings.
OSR leadership were investigating how to streamline review processes to reduce the burden of work on compliance review teams. The OSR Senior Leadership Team would also review how they could be more direct and decisive when taking on feedback from colleagues.
OSR agreed to take on the comments from the session. They highlighted other exercises OSR undertook to receive feedback from colleagues.
3. Update on meeting with GSS Deputy Heads
The Chair and members discussed the meeting held between NED members and the Deputy Heads of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) on 29 October. The Deputy Heads had collated views from Heads of Professions across the GSS.
The following points were highlighted in discussion:
the GSS would like greater OSR involvement, including in methodology;
the split of the National Statistician and Permanent Secretary had provided an opportunity for greater involvement with the GSS and new National Statistician;
OSR communications had a positive impact in departments, and the GSS asked that engagement was maintained to promote a high quality of statistics;
in some cases, casework was repeatedly raised by the same people;
there was a large volume of official statistics accreditations, and the Deputy Heads suggested a risk-based approach to accreditation, or, where accreditation was not realistic, the GSS sought clear messaging and trustworthy statistics from producers;
whether the Code of Practice could be used on numbers as well as statistics, for example, on management information;
the potential for OSR to increase its visibility with users;
the value of the Code of Practice was an extremely useful tool underpinning the production of statistics across the GSS; and
whether OSR could support Freedom of Information (FOI) requests where departments were asked to produce statistics they would not normally.
There was significant emphasis on increasing OSR’s visibility in the GSS, in both user and producer spaces. The Committee discussed the role of OSR in intervening on methods, including the work OSR currently does on methods and methodology. The Chair suggested that OSR speak directly to GSS Deputy Heads on methodology. The Chair identified this as an exercise to repeat in future.
4. Update from the Director General for Regulation
OSR updated on major pieces of work since the last Committee meeting.
The Committee heard that the Code launch events had been numerous and well received. The Director General updated the Committee on his other external engagement events and highlighted the 2026 elections as an opportunity to promote and embed intelligent transparency practices.
Members discussed the ONS progress on recovery plans, and the Committee expressed concern that the reporting to the Authority Board had been too positive in some aspects. OSR were concerned that some of the narrative in the update published 4 December might appear overly optimistic given the challenges it highlighted around resourcing and missing milestone targets. The Director General would talk to the ONS Permanent Secretary about this perception. Members acknowledged the time it would take for changes to impact and restore trust.
Members heard the regulatory services update outlining ongoing and planned work, including that in early 2026, OSR would initiate discussions on how to regulate the census preparations, and would conduct an internal consideration of the regulation of the 2021 Census and the lessons learned within OSR. Work was ongoing with the GSS harmonisation team to develop harmonised standards for sex and gender and there had been an increase in casework from Members of Parliament. ONS’ revised migration statistics were commended.
OSR recommended that the Committee confirmed accredited official statistics for NHS England cancer waiting times, with consideration of the actions taken by NHS England to address the four requirements made by OSR. The Committee approved the recommendation.
5. Interventions Policy
OSR presented the updated interventions policy for the Committee’s comments and approval. The proposed update sought to reflect the new Standards for Public Use of Statistics, as well as to make the policy more readable and accessible for people to raise cases with OSR.
Members discussed the policy. The following points were raised in discussion:
members were supportive of the updated policy and felt it situated OSR in a strong position to make interventions. Some minor revisions to the wording were suggested;
members discussed the possibility of members of the public to raise an issue directly with the Committee. OSR welcomed further openness and fair challenge, and would follow the Authority Enquiries complaints process when new issues were raised through this channel; and
the language around Freedom of Information requests was discussed;
The Committee were supportive of the updated policy, but asked that OSR could provide tracked changes in future documents. The Committee approved the policy for consideration by the Authority Board for final approval, with minor tweaks to the wording.
6. OSR Business Update
OSR presented their proposed business plan which aligned with the strategy that was published at the end of November. The business planning would support OSR to deliver the strategy and focused on being ambitious but achievable.
Members heard that OSR were considering how best to engage with ONS during its recovery, and how to engage and regulate Census producers in ONS, Scotland and Northern Ireland. OSR had agreed a plan for managing the volume of Accredited Official Statistics and were working to streamline and speed up the process for compliance reviews to maximise impact. The Committee were asked for comments and would be asked to approve the business plan via correspondence in January before it was submitted to the January Authority Board meeting.
OSR also developed an evaluation strategy. Members heard that OSR planned to run a series of workshops to develop a Theory of Change for each of its strategic themes, and that the evaluation strategy planned to be published in February alongside its business plans. OSR would also develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure progress against the four themes.
Members discussed the update. The following items were raised in discussion:
members supported the stakeholder engagement and workshops, and were interested in how the KPIs would measure the success of work. Members noted that anecdotal understanding of OSR’s perception would be valuable to assess the toughness and impact of interventions;
members thought the business plan and evaluation strategy was a thoughtful document;
OSR were investigating the use of an automated tool to assess Trustworthiness, Quality and Value in statistical outputs to support regulators in the first instance;
response to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee recommendation on report cards was ongoing, and OSR were working with producers to identify an effective and helpful form of annual reporting; and
OSR had taken a managed approach to the plan with a focused approach to delivery.
The Committee welcomed the plan and would be provided with an updated version via correspondence in January ahead of consideration by the Authority Board.
7. Systemic Review: Mental Health Statistics in Wales
OSR introduced the Systemic Review on Mental Health Statistics in Wales. OSR had conducted reviews for each of the UK nations.
The report identified that Wales was furthest behind other UK nations in terms of data maturity, and OSR hoped that the report would give Welsh Government leverage with ministers and organisations to improve the core datasets.
Members discussed the review, the following points were made in discussion:
members discussed the importance of impartiality in this report. OSR emphasised their role in serving the public good, and appreciated the risk raised by the Committee. OSR would consider referencing other published work on this topic in the final version of the systemic review;
members noted that the recommendations should be more specific and acknowledge the resourcing implications asked for by OSR; and
although not directly related to the statistics producers, the report should reference positive work completed by Swansea University through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in this space.
The Committee noted the importance of OSR meeting its impartiality commitments and supported the report pending the inclusion of other reference materials. The recommendations should be revised to recognise resource implications if OSR recommended more work. The report would be published in January 2026.
8. Elections Lookahead: Scotland and Wales
OSR presented their plans for the Scottish and Welsh elections taking place in 2026. As in 2024, OSR planned to provide explainer statements for topics likely to come up in public debate, and would stagger publication of these from early 2026.
OSR proposed that the Chair of the Authority Board write to leaders of political parties to make clear the expectations on the use of statistics during the election campaign. OSR would also increase its visibility across UK governments through planned engagement for embedding the standards for public use of statistics, and sought to promote the impartiality and independence of OSR.
Members discussed the update. The Committee were supportive of the proposal for the Chair to write to political leaders, and commended the value of an impartial explainer for the electorate.
The Committee supported OSR’s approach to upcoming elections.
9. Economic Statistics Plan (ESP) Update
OSR provided an overview of their initial reaction to the Economic Statistics Plan (ESP) update published on 4 December.
OSR reported positively the high level of stakeholder engagement completed by ONS and the transparency in reporting of both successes and challenges. OSR discussed the deliverability of the Plan and were concerned about the early milestone progress. OSR would respond positively but with concern that the plan was ambitious and challenging, and would urge that ONS business planning reflected prioritisation decisions and that stakeholders were kept updated and assured of its achievability.
The Committee discussed the update and OSR’s role in regulating ONS more broadly. The Committee agreed that the OSR response would be circulated to the Committee via correspondence before publication.
10. Compliance Work: Update on Labour Statistics
OSR presented an update on Labour Force Survey transformation programmes in Great Britain and Northern Ireland respectively.
Members heard that ONS’ labour market statistics had improved its user engagement and programme governance, although OSR had heard that the programme had been impacted by a lack of strategic direction and statistical leadership following the departure of the National Statistician. The Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey (APS) were not meeting user needs, the APS in particular was impacted by limited sample size and removal of Scottish funding that boosted the survey. OSR were working with the ONS Task and Finish Group lead. Stakeholders were seeing improvements in ONS’ Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) but there were ongoing frustrations from users.
OSR had not completed the review of Northern Ireland’s Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) labour market statistics and presented emerging findings. Their review focused on transparency, prioritisation of quality and user needs. The transformation project was progressing well and user feedback was positive. OSR noted that users were concerned about the transition to the new survey, and ensuring consistent UK labour market estimates. NISRA may be ready to move to the transformed survey before ONS which would cause concern for UK coherence, but due to the impact on resources, NISRA wanted to avoid a dual running of their transformed and older labour market surveys.
Members discussed the update. The following points were raised in discussion:
OSR’s findings were concerning, particularly taken alongside the amber/red status of the programme and the likely slippage of decision points reported at the Authority Board. There was also a sense from members that the picture from ONS staff remained unduly optimistic;
ONS had met four of OSR’s twelve recommendations. It may provide more clarity if outstanding recommendations were noted as progressing or delayed by external circumstances, as opposed to where ONS work was insufficient;
ONS were focused on the big users of labour market statistics, and OSR should be a champion for the broader user base. Members questioned if there was a role for OSR to lay out guidance as to how ONS should deal with different user groups. There was a category of users that felt unsupported by ONS, especially amidst the prioritisation decisions taken;
the Chair would communicate the concern from Regulation Committee to the Authority Board. Members were concerned about undue optimism from ONS staff. OSR would produce a high-level summary to support the Chair’s update to the Authority Board; and
it would be difficult to coincide the launch of both transformed labour market surveys. The Code of Practice stated that statistics should be released when they were ready. OSR suggested that NISRA should launch their new statistics even if Great Britain’s statistics were not ready as Northern Irish users should benefit from the improved quality.
The Chair would feedback the Committee’s questions about ONS’s TLFS reporting to the Board. The Committee thanked OSR for the update on both Great Britain and Northern Ireland Labour Market Statistics.
11. Horizon scanning and any other business
Members discussed the use of a figure in the Covid-19 inquiry which was based on a contested model that was dependent on assumptions. This use of statistics attracted significant press coverage and the Committee discussed how OSR could promote best practice without interfering with a judicial finding which was outside OSR’s remit. OSR would work with the Authority Legal team to consult how to approach this. More broadly, this brought into question how OSR should deal with casework that sat outside their remit.
OSR was considering whether the discontinuation of the Public Confidence in Official Statistics survey, previously run by UK Statistics Authority, leaves an evidence gap. OSR would update the Regulation Committee at the next meeting with their view on this and any proposed steps to fill this potential evidence gap.
Members discussed correspondence with a member of the public which flagged the ability for the public to contact the Committee directly. Some of the issues raised would be considered and addressed in upcoming planned reviews.
Regulation Committee would next meet on Thursday 12 February.
