April 2025 to March 2026 plan

Financial context

The ONS budget for 2025/26 has been set by HM Treasury at broadly the same level in cash terms as in 2024/25, resulting in a reduction in real terms. Within this, the relationship between core funding and ringfenced funding that is only available for specific purposes aligned to programme delivery has changed significantly, enabling the organisation more flexibility to align resource to priorities – Annex B sets this out in detail.

In developing a business plan in this financial position, we have taken as a guiding principle the core outputs required from us as the UK’s national statistics institute. This has resulted in sharp prioritisation favouring the core statistical outputs captured in our second priority outcome (detailed in section 3.4), namely: top quality published statistics on prices, GDP, employment, and population (including births, deaths and migration).

In addition, we are fully committed to recover performance and address risks on our surveys, which drive the quality of our core economic statistics. We have also chosen to protect budgets (in nominal terms) for our range of economic statistics and essential security to protect the data we hold. Finding significant additional funding for survey operations within a ‘flat cash’ settlement for 2025/26, while absorbing the costs of inflation and Civil Service pay awards, has required tough choices. It has been necessary to reduce budgets in all other areas, for example by:

• making technical efficiencies where possible, to deliver the same for less.
• making further savings to our corporate centre.
• further prioritising our data acquisition to service only our priority outputs.
• further prioritising our technology cost commitments in ways that do not impact our priority outputs.
• scaling back on our core-funded health and international work.
• relying on income generation to fund any new requests for analysis.
• bearing down further on any remaining marginal activity outside priority outputs.

We will continue to be innovative in how we deliver quality outputs most efficiently against our priorities, for example by making effective use of technological advances. However, we will by necessity be scaling back outputs in areas not linked to our core priority areas. Any potential impact on the format, frequency or volume of our statistical outputs will be subject to engagement with users, in line with the Statistics Code of Practice.

The golden thread

The ONS strategic business plan has been developed around a “golden thread” that links all our work back to the current Authority strategy, Statistics for the Public Good, underpinned by four strategic drivers (or pillars) – Radical, Ambitious, Inclusive and Sustainable. These drivers direct our work and delivery approaches. A refreshed version of Statistics for the Public Good is due to be published in Summer 2025 to cover the 2025/2030 period.

Priority outcomes and activities

The challenging financial environment remains and user demand for our statistics continues to be high. Therefore, our priority outcomes (POs) are reviewed annually to ensure we remain aligned to the Authority’s strategy and to user requirements. Each PO is delivered via a set of priority activities, and associated milestones and form the basis of the ONS prioritisation framework. Performance against the business plan is monitored via key performance indicators and milestones aligned to each PO.

Our POs are all underpinned by skills and expertise and by an emphasis on quality, taking an end-to-end perspective, from survey and statistical design through to dissemination. They demonstrate our clear commitment to securing the stability and quality of our core statistical outputs including through the benefits available through data sharing.

Priority outcome 1 (PO1): An enhanced reputation for delivering trusted, relevant, independent statistics and analysis.

Our reputation with the public and our users relies on high levels of trust in ONS and trust in the statistics we produce; we cannot fulfil our role without their engagement and participation. Trustworthiness is underpinned by confidence in the quality of our outputs, our independence, impartiality, and the secure use of personal information, as well as our response to user needs. Trustworthiness is also key to our international reputation, and we aim to be world leading in advancing statistics and the use of data.

Achievement of PO1 is dependent on success in our other POs; it does not require resource allocated to it directly. PO1 can only achieved by sustained investment in our full end-to-end integrated statistical system, including our surveys, and in our ability to respond to the changing context. This means actively engaging our users wherever they are in the UK and ensuring the public understands the important role their data plays in the production of our statistics and information security.

To achieve PO1, we have incorporated the findings from the UK Statistics Assembly into our plans, and through funding the other POs, will deliver:

• regional and local engagement with users
• user-centred dissemination and content strategy
• public engagement on data
• strengthened strategic user engagement

Priority outcome 2 (PO2): Top quality published statistics on prices, GDP (including trade and public sector finance), the labour market, and population (including births, deaths, and migration).

PO2 describes our core purpose as a national statistics institute and as such our allocation of resources in 2025/26 reflects this prioritisation (see Annex B). The publication of regular, accurate and informative core statistics is at the heart of the ONS mission and integral to our reputation and credibility. Note that ‘GDP’ encompasses statistics which contribute to the National Accounts: trade, balance of payments, foreign direct investment, environmental, sector and financial accounts – along with public sector finances.

Timely and high-quality economic statistics are vital for one of the largest economies in the world, with a sophisticated financial sector and a government and central bank that is facing complex policy challenges and needs high quality economic data to help maintain economic and financial stability. Likewise, our population statistics are essential for understanding our changing demographics and the structure of the population, informing key policy decisions and planning for local services, such as school class sizes, GP practices and care facilities. Population statistics also provide essential weighting used to produce core economic statistics.

Our statistics are published according to user need and are used to inform policies that affect every individual in the UK on topics ranging from the future state pension age to the state of the labour market. Statistics never stand still: the economy and our society evolve, user demands change, and data are frequently updated and revised. This priority outcome is therefore intimately linked to PO1 described above, and we will only stay on the forefront of statistical production by investing in the full end-to-end system that underpins it.

The quality of our statistics depends on the availability of high-quality survey data. This has been highlighted by recent challenges related to the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Further recovery and stabilisation of our social surveys, with a focus on ensuring the quality of our most important economic statistics, will continue to be a priority for 2025/26. Despite the financial and resource challenges that we face in 2025/26 we have continued to prioritise investment in our surveys to improve the quality of the data collected because quality is a pervasive principle that cuts across all our work but is specifically embedded in PO2. Given the importance of high-quality economic statistics for decision makers, financial markets and the public, and the surveys that underpin them we have developed a surveys recovery plan and are producing a detailed and prioritised workplan for our economic statistics.

We will continue our process improvement work through 2025/26, including through reproducible analytical pipelines (RAPs), building on the successes in previous years. RAPs offer both quality improvement and efficiency benefits. Reducing our reliance on legacy technology will over time not only help mitigate our quality risks but also reduce our costs.

Breaking PO2 down further into its constituent core statistical outputs, the following sections highlight areas of particular focus in 2025/26. To deliver PO2 we also need to begin our work to:

• update our statistical processes to align with the new international standards of the System of National Accounts (SNA) and Balance of Payments Manual (BoPM)
• deliver our vision of more accurate, timely and sustainable population statistics through the Future of Population and Migration Statistics (FPMS) Programme
• build on improvements already made in measuring the economy as a whole including innovations in how we capture price increases

Recognising the extended period of financial strain across our systems, we will revisit our portfolio of quality assessments ensuring they are focused on the highest priority areas considering risk to the specific, inputs, outputs and stakeholder needs.

Prices

The delivery of quality statistics on prices is a core part of our national statistics remit, and a priority output for the ONS. Our core statistics on inflation and prices include consumer price inflation, producer price inflation, house price inflation and private rents. These indices are used to uprate and price pensions, benefits and gilts amongst a range of economy-wide impacts.

Our plans for 2025/26 include:

• Continuing to produce timely and relevant monthly Consumer Price Inflation statistics, including meeting our statutory obligations to continue to produce Retail Price Index statistics.
• Continued publication of high-quality:
  • Monthly Producer Prices Indices statistics and quarterly Services Producer Prices Indices statistics.
  • House Prices and Private Rent monthly statistics, including implementing requirements from the OSR’s review of the Price Index of Private Rents.
  • Quarterly Household Cost Indices statistics.
• Continuing to push the frontier on CPI methods, including implementing new international statistical standards and exploring options for seasonal adjustment.
• Maintaining the sample sizes on surveys for producing Producer Prices Indices (PPI), Export Prices Indices (EPI), Import Prices Indices (IPI) and Services Producer Prices Indices (SPPI).
• Continued improvements to deflators, including trade in services, construction, environment and data as an asset.

Gross Domestic Product

The delivery of top-quality statistics on GDP is a core part of our national statistics remit, and a priority output for the ONS. GDP estimates are the main measure of UK economic growth based on the value of goods and services produced during a given period. GDP estimates are produced monthly, quarterly and annually to ensure the timely release of data throughout the year.

Our plans for 2025/26 include:

• Publishing regular GDP, National Accounts, Balance of Payments and related outputs, including UK Trade and the Annual Blue Book and the Pink Book.
• Improving the quality of GDP estimates, and related outputs, through the improvement of survey data, the use of improved financial data and implementing changes as part of our responses to independent OSR reviews.
• Continuing work to move off our legacy systems, including transforming our International Trade in Services results system. Producing both UK Environmental and Natural Capital Accounts.
• Improving and enhancing the use of value added tax (VAT) for economic measurement, including as a real time indicator.
• Continuing to develop and publish more holistic measures and understanding of economic progress in the UK, with a focus on human capital and skills.

Public sector finance

Public sector finance (PSF) statistics on taxation, public sector spending and the balance sheet are jointly produced with HM Treasury every month. These are vital to the effective running of the country as they allow for the monitoring of the UK government’s performance against their fiscal targets. These statistics are regularly updated with improved methods and the latest data which reflects the ever-changing shape of the public sector.

Our plans for public sector finances in 2025/26 include:

• Improve our measure of Public Sector Net Financial liabilities, working closely with the OBR and HM Treasury.
• Continue to develop and update our statistics and signal key forthcoming changes, including those resulting from our economic statistics classifications process, which are highlighted every month in our classifications and developments article.
• Publish our looking ahead article, which explains plans for statistical developments for PSF in the coming years.
• Start the process of redeveloping the systems used to produce these statistics.

Labour market

The delivery of quality labour market statistics is a core part of our national statistics remit, and a priority output for the ONS. Our suite of labour market statistics includes estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity and other employment-related statistics for the UK including hours worked, earnings, vacancies and workplace disputes. While we are driving improvements across the breadth of our surveys, the priority for 2025/26 is to strengthen LFS (Labour Force Survey) and prepare for the transition to the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS).

Our plans for 2025/26 include:

• Publishing our regular monthly, quarterly and annual labour market statistics.
• For the LFS specifically:
  • Field force expansion for additional face-to-face resources to collect data and boost response rates. We will focus on the recruitment and retention of field capability through our multi-channel recruitment plans, ensuring these roles remain attractive in an increasingly competitive market. This will provide the platform for increased flexibility and quality in coming years.
  • Weighting updates to align to the latest population projections.

Our plans for the TLFS in 2025/26 will be set out in a separate document later this month following the results of the tests we conducted at the end of 2024 on a shorter questionnaire; further analysis of LFS and TLFS quality, assurance from academic experts and significant engagement with key users.

Population (including births, deaths and migration)

The delivery of top-quality population and migration statistics is a core part of our national statistics remit, and a priority output for the ONS. Our population statistics, which encompass births, deaths and migration statistics, are essential for understanding our changing demographics and the structure of the population, informing key policy decisions and planning for local services, such as school class sizes, GP practices, and care facilities.

Our plans for 2025/26 include publishing:

• Official annual population estimates.
• Official migration statistics.
• Official demographic statistics and analysis.
• Official statistics on births and deaths, including the release of annual births and deaths statistics.
• An assessment of the benefits of the 2021 Census.
• The National Statistician’s recommendation on the future of population and migration statistics.

We also aim to:

• Develop our approach to measuring internal migration.
• Work to meet the standards of accredited official statistics for our admin-based population estimates (ABPEs).
• Continue development of harmonisation of Ethnicity, Disability, and Sex and Gender Identity data and statistics.

Priority outcome 3 (PO3): Support the Government’s missions and other users by maximising the use of our statistics and responding to evidence gaps where we are uniquely positioned to do.

Restoring the quality and robustness of our core economic and social statistics is crucial for tracking progress against the government’s missions. Therefore, our success in achieving PO2 (above) is a necessary and prior requirement to making progress on PO3 and as such our allocation of resources in 2025/26 reflects this (see Annex B).

Mission-driven government will require data and reporting from various sources, much of which will be provided by other government departments. However, in some areas ONS will be uniquely positioned to deliver because of our data assets. We will continue to collaborate with other government departments and local government users to strengthen the data and related outputs required to deliver on behalf of a mission-led government, subject to available resources. This will rely on maximising the value of existing outputs and partnerships, with careful prioritisation to ensure the appropriate balance between our core statistics and new evidence requirements where we are uniquely able to deliver.

Our plans for 2025/26 include publishing statistics and analysis on:

• Crime from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)
• Health
• Energy and environment
• Income and wealth

We also aim to continue:

• The Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) and Business Insights and Continuity Survey (BICS)
• Sub-national outputs

Priority outcome 4 (PO4): Greater linked data capabilities that result in faster, evidence-based decisions across government.

Linking public and private sector data is integral for unlocking opportunities that can better inform government policies and the production of ONS core statistics. The ONS is one of the biggest producers of data and is helping deliver the shared vision for the safe use of public data and a National Data Library (NDL). This is alongside a government ecosystem for trusted national data exchange, working jointly with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and HM Treasury. We are helping to set the standards and best practice for sharing, linkage, access and use of data across government, including the development of reference data, data products and reliable de-identification at scale.

The Integrated Data Programme (IDP) has delivered the Integrated Data Service (IDS) for government which has started to address some of the challenges faced with data sharing including by establishing systematic data sharing agreements; unifying the approach to data linkage; creating a discoverability layer, including a Google data catalogue; and revolutionising how linked data can be used through a scalable cross-government data product. The “indexing first” approach being applied allows faster de-identified linkage of datasets to enhance analytical potential.

The data and infrastructure enabled by the IDS is now an inherent part of the ONS integrated statistical system and data operations, allowing linkage of data in support of the FPMS and core statistics. Having now built the data and analysis infrastructure of the IDS, resource requirements for PO4 have been scaled back for 2025/26 reflecting our prioritisation of resources towards PO2 (see Annex B).

Our plans for 2025/26 are centred on demonstrating the insight that can be offered through linked data assets in the IDS analytical environment. This will be taken forward through several use cases in collaboration with accredited researchers.

Planning, monitoring and prioritisation

In 2024/25, ONS took further steps towards a horizontal (value-stream) approach to planning priority activities. This new approach is designed to capture all inputs in the production of outputs, independent of organisational structure. This planning approach has been further matured as part of our 2025/26 planning and in support of the ONS’s submission into Spending Review 2025.

Many of the significant challenges that ONS faced in 2024/25 are likely to continue into 2025/26. That includes the tight financial context, and the well-publicised challenges we have faced on labour market statistics, other core economic statistics, and quality of associated surveys. Within this context a strategic prioritisation decision has been made to direct significant additional funding in 2025/26 to survey operations in support of PO2.

To help us deliver against our ambitious plans and continue to meet our financial challenges, we will need to make further efficiencies and savings through our refreshed Efficiencies and Savings Plan (ESP). We will maintain a focus on streamlining our outputs, continuously improving our processes, applying automation and artificial intelligence where relevant, and continuing to review our commercial approach and reduce corporate service costs.

However, finding significant additional funding for survey operations within a ‘flat cash’ settlement for 2025/26, while absorbing the costs of inflation and Civil Service pay awards, has required tough choices. We have made these difficult decisions using the ONS prioritisation framework which was established to ensure our resources are focused on the highest priority activities. It is reviewed and updated as required, dependent on the changing context. Prioritisation forms one of the early stages of our business planning process, and is based on agreed criteria including strategic alignment and strategic risk mitigation.

Some of these tough choices to stop, reduce or slow down work are listed below:

• An extended pause of the Survey of Living Conditions, with the plan to move some of the content into the redesigned Living Costs and Food Survey in 2026.
• We have paused some development of work to measure crime against children, including the Young People’s Safety Survey and Safety During Childhood Survey (subject to receiving any additional external funding).
• We will continue to engage across government about the data required to inform further mission-based policy development. However, the extent to which we can meet these demands is likely to be conditional on additional funding.
• We have wound up the Public Services Productivity Review a year earlier than planned.
• We have slowed the pace of Public Sector Finance Transformation.
• We are streamlining our deflators work following a period of focused investment in our assurance tools and have postponed our Purchasing Power Parities survey.
• We have reduced business micro-data analysis and paused all contributions to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international microdata requests unless income is in place to fund it.
• We will make only limited progress in relation to implementation of the new System of National Accounts (SNA25) and Balance of Payments Manual (BPM7) in 2025/26.
• We have downscaled well-being statistics and dashboard to an absolute minimum.
• We will limit the pace of our transition away from legacy systems and our ability to move to more agile and productive alternatives, reducing our ability to mitigate our strategic risk in this space, and increasing uncertainty related to future costs.
• We will remove data science support to the rest of government.

While the prioritisation necessary to remain affordable will not satisfy demand from some users, we will continue to deliver public impact by protecting our core deliverables. This will include publishing over 800 statistical outputs across 2025/26 covering a broad range of topics meeting priority user needs on the economy, population and society. The ONS will also continue to deliver independent, high quality and relevant statistics and analysis crucial for decision making by central and local government, the health service, businesses, charities and communities across the UK, as well as informing public debate.

Details of our key milestones for 2025/26 can be found in Annex A.

The ONS Portfolio and Investment Committee, a sub-committee of the Executive Committee (ExCo), provides oversight of the delivery of our strategic business plan, priority activities and milestones, escalating as appropriate to ExCo or the UKSA Board. The Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, a sub-committee of the UKSA Board, provides independent oversight of our highest strategic risks.

Overview of strategic risks

Building on the improvements to our risk and assurance framework in 2024/25 and overall risk maturity, we will further develop our risk and assurance capability to ensure a consistent risk and assurance culture across all levels of the organisation.

As the ONS re-points its resources to the priorities described above, there will be a continued focus on managing our full profile of strategic risks and reviewing any impacts resulting from prioritisation. The interplay between our strategic risks will continue to be frequently assessed to ensure a balanced position that enables the ONS to maintain its reputation for quality statistics.

The UKSA’s strategic risks, endorsed by the Authority Board and are set out in Annex C. All strategic risks have assigned risk owners at the senior leadership level and are overseen by the relevant executive governance forum and refreshed annually.

Stakeholders

We remain committed to putting users at the heart of our work. Our 2024 stakeholder satisfaction survey indicated that we are trusted to deliver high quality statistics, and are viewed as innovative, impartial and expert. Close relationships and collaboration with users help us identify opportunities to improve the quality and coverage of our statistics and help us be radical and ambitious in setting out to provide answers to society’s most pressing questions.

At a strategic level, the National Statistician’s Expert User Advisory Committee (NSEUAC) brings the needs of users into our approach, including providing user insights into the impact of the ONS’s prioritisation activities. Our commitment to inclusivity transcends our statistics; we continually look to expand our engagement to reach as wide a set of users as possible to fully reflect diverse needs.

Over the last year we have increased the ONS’s corporate engagement with our key stakeholders including a monthly newsletter to update on our delivery and highlight opportunities to feed into the development of our plans, and holding a stakeholder forum to outline our plans for the coming year. We also continue to engage stakeholders bilaterally as well as wider engagement on specific topics and changes.

Following the recommendation in the Independent Review of the UKSA we held the inaugural UK Statistics Assembly on 22 January 2025 to advise on future priorities for the entire UK statistical system (UKSA, other UK government departments and devolved governments). Around 550 people attended the event including a wide range of stakeholders from all sectors. Discussions focused on user needs and gaps, and the challenges and opportunities for the system.

The Assembly findings were published in an independent report authored by Professor David Hand, chair of the National Statistician’s Expert User Advisory Committee. The report details observations and recommendations are shaping several elements of our delivery across our priority outcomes, and highlighting areas including:

• ensuring our user engagement is effective in understanding needs, continuing and building on the engagement from the Assembly.
• addressing user needs for more granular statistics, including small-area populations and characteristics on under-represented groups.
• leading the way in using more administrative data, improving its quality and integration with surveys and other sources.
• recognising the need for UK-wide statistics and advocating for, and supporting, harmonised data where desirable.

At a working level, the ONS’s Engagement Hub coordinates our work with external stakeholders and broadens our reach especially with local users and communities. We also engage with the public to bring the citizen voice into our decisions so that our statistics fully reflect society and that they inform all groups of the population.

Since its launch in March 2023, ONS Local and Devolved Liaison Officers have provided analytical support to local, regional and national leaders, including bespoke projects to fill local data gaps; highlighting user needs identified locally with other parts of the ONS/GSS; navigating the current landscape of available subnational data; and capability building activities. This close working enables local data and expertise to be combined with granular data to maximise analytical insight.

The ONS has been working closely with new and emerging Mayoral Combined Authorities, using the IDS where relevant to progress projects including public sector expenditure and tax generation, broadband infrastructure investment, night-time economy, economic inactivity and travel and access inequalities. The ONS also provides a bespoke service to each of the devolved nations, developing workplans and agreeing priorities, for example delivering projects in Scotland on the profile of graduates in non-graduate jobs and productivity for Glasgow City Region.

Our successful “ONS Local Presents…” workshops focus on building capability with over 600 attendees at each event. This work ensures the ONS has the best quality local intelligence, ensuring that our statistics continue to remain relevant and meet priority user needs. ONS Local provides a two-way bridge between central and local government, by collating insight on regional challenges with analysis to inform policy development and feeding this back through central channels. In the context of increased devolution across the UK, this invaluable insight enables central government to take a place-based lens when developing new policies and strive for a local by default approach to data.

Our close working relationship with the other government departments across the UK continues to mature and will be essential if we are to secure the benefits of data sharing. Our strategic partnership with the Cabinet Office through the Joint Data and Analysis Centre ensures the ONS keeps up to date on the key priorities of government, including urgent and emerging important topics and allows the ONS to maximise the relevance of our statistics and analysis. In return, the ONS’s expertise enhances robustness and accessibility of analysis and data science for central government.

Following delivery of the Analysis Function Strategy for 2022 to 2025, we are now in the process of updating our strategy, collaborating closely across government to ensure that we continue to support the 17,000 strong community of analysts in delivering better outcomes for the public through analysis. The Analysis Function scores the highest of any function across all seven dimensions of the Functional Quality Survey, which is testament to the significant contribution from analysts across government in supporting decision making, driving innovation and delivering efficiencies.  Our Analytical Priorities Board brings together leads from across the ONS for topic areas with the aim of ensuring our analytical priorities for the next six months are informed by stakeholder feedback, both from the public and central and local government insight. This ensures we provide analysis that links to wider government priorities and horizon scanning to determine future analytical needs.