Next meeting: 30 October 2025

Members present

• Penny Young (Deputy Chair)
• Dr Jacob Abboud
• Peter Barron
• Ed Humpherson
• Emma Rourke
• Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter
• Professor Mairi Spowage
• Darren Tierney
• Dr Sarah Walsh

Other attendees

• June Bowman
• Brian Green (for item 2)
• Karly Greene (for item
• Sarah Moore
• Phil Davies (for item 11)
• Nicola Fisher (for item 2)
• Grant Fitzner (for item 10)
• Alex Lambert (for items 11 &12)
• Liz McKeown (for item 12)
• Philip Wales (for item 2)
• Jennet Woolford (for item 12)

Secretariat

• Sally Jones
• Sarah Cobden
• Tom Marsh

Apologies

• Sir Robert Chote
• Professor Dame Carol Propper
• Tom Taylor

1. Apologies

1. Apologies were noted from Sir Robert Chote, Professor Dame Carol Propper, and Tom Taylor.

2. Declarations of Interest

1. There were no new declarations of interest.

3. Minutes and matters arising from previous meetings

1. The minutes of the previous meeting held on 31 July were approved.

4. Success and Challenges on how the UK Statistics System is working from a NISRA Perspective

1. Philip Wales, Chief Statistician and Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), Brian Green, Director of Economic Statistics, Nicola Fisher, Analysis and Research and Karly Greene, Director of Analytical Services gave a presentation to the Board on the UK statistical system from NISRA’s perspective on their objectives and structure; challenges and opportunities at a national and local level; and the opportunity to build an empowering, dynamic and visionary UK statistical system.
2. Board members welcomed the presentation and the following key areas were discussed:
   1. challenges and inhibitors around data sharing and the extent to which departments could be held to account for sharing data;
   2. the need for parity in legislation. NISRA do not have comparable access to data as ONS;
   3. NISRA’s approach to dealing with fiscal and budgetary challenges in 2023/24; and
   4. preparation for the Census 2031.
3. Board members welcomed the opportunity to discuss and continue to collaborate in areas of mutual interest including data sharing and census preparations.
4. The Board noted their thanks for an excellent presentation.

5. Report from the Authority Chair [SA(25)44]

1. The Chair paid warm tribute to Sir Robert Chote, the outgoing Chair of the Authority, who had been in post since June 2022. Sir Robert had undertaken the role with integrity and professionalism throughout a challenging period. Penny would be taking over as Interim Chair from 1 October until a permanent replacement was found via the current recruitment campaign.
2. The Chair welcomed Darren Tierney, Office for National Statistics Permanent Secretary and James Benford, Director General Economic Social and Environmental Statistics (ESEG) to their first meeting.
3. The Chair asked the Board to agree that with effect from this meeting Darren Tierney would take on the role as the third executive member of the Board, alongside Emma Rourke (Acting National Statistician) and Ed Humpherson (Director General for the Office for Statistics Regulation). The Board agreed.
4. The Chair reported on her activities since the Board last met:
   1. the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry was ongoing with the Cabinet Office due to provide evidence in the coming weeks;
   2. the Authority strategy working group were in process of preparing a letter for publication to cover the interim strategy period;
   3. membership of Population Statistics System subcommittee had been finalised and work was ongoing to schedule the first meeting in November; and
   4. the Board were considering the implications of the split of the National Statistician and Permanent Secretary roles with work ongoing to produce a document provide clarity on the split.

6. Report from the Permanent Secretary [SA(25)45]

1. Darren Tierney provided the Board with an overview of activity and issues since joining the organisation on 11 August highlighting the following:
   1. changes had been made to the leadership and architecture of the organisation to ensure alignment at a senior level with key priorities, with James Benford’s leadership covering the end to end statistical production process for economic and social statistics under a single director general;
   2. the work by the Executive Committee (ExCo) on the prioritisation process, which would provide the clarity needed across the organisation.
   3. rebuilding organisational culture was a key area of focus. Two SCS Awaydays had been held in August and September to discuss and agree an ONS Mission and Leadership Statement, which would create a shared set of values and common purpose in reestablishing a culture of transparency and understanding;
   4. engagement externally included a recent blog by James Benford regarding the decision to delay the Retail Sales publication; and
   5. the Civil Service People Survey 2025 was live and would close on 21 October with results expected in December.
2. Members discussed the update and it was clarified that the prioritisation process was ongoing with plans in place for consultation and engagement with stakeholders during October. Rebuilding organisation culture, including restoring trust in senior leaders, and ensuring colleagues feel listened to, was a key priority for the Permanent Secretary.
3. Members noted the importance of effective communications to underpin statistical releases. Planning was ongoing regarding the publication of the next estimates for long-term international migration scheduled late November. The recent media coverage in relation to the long standing issue, highlighted by the Board at previous meetings, of delays to coronial data specifically drug related deaths was referenced. ONS would continue to work with the Ministry of Justice on this issue.

7. Report from the Acting National Statistician [SA(25)46]

1. Emma Rourke provided the Board with an overview of activity and issues since the last update. Emma noted her thanks to the Permanent Secretary for his support in setting up a new Directorate, led by Lucinda Eggleton to deliver system-wide and international priorities led by the National Statistician.
2. The Board heard that the international strategy would be scheduled for discussion at a future meeting. A strategic joined up approach to the international work would be taken across the system. In terms of the broader UK statistical system, events had been held for the Government Statistical Service community in August with a focus on building capability. This had included a knowledge sharing session on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
3. Emma had met with the National Centre for Social Research and has been invited to chair a strategic round table on the future of surveys, which would provide the opportunity to review risks and opportunities across the entire survey system, including ONS in a mutually supportive way.
4. Following an initial discussion at the Inter Administration Committee Emma would be chairing a workshop on 29 September with the Chief Statisticians and other partners to reflect on UK statistical coherence, to consider the Office for Statistics Regulation Committee systemic review setting out action needed to produce key comparable UK data, the Lievesley Review and Cabinet Office proposals. It was noted that progress in this area was likely to take time given the current resources available to the National Statistician.
5. Members discussed the update noting the scale of system wide issues the National Statistician could engage with and impact positively, such as the work around AI. There were some subject areas internationally, such as national accounts that the National Statistician might want to delegate to the relevant ONS senior leader. With regard to data sharing members noted that working collaboratively would be important, particularly as data sharing issues were not just legislative but cultural. ONS engagement with the development of the National Data Library was important and there was a need for innovative solutions to enable data sharing across departments.

8. Report from the Director General for Regulation [SA(25)47]

1. Ed Humpherson provided an overview of regulatory activities since the last meeting.
2. The Board confirmed their approval of Code of Practice for Statistics 3.0, which would be published at the end of October and formally launch at the beginning of November. A programme of launch events and promotional activities were scheduled to help embed the new Code.
3. The Board heard that James Benford had written to OSR in August setting out the initial work ONS had undertaken in response to OSR’s system review of ONS Economic Statistics. Ed Humpherson commended the blog that had been published by James Benford early September ‘Correcting the record on retail sales, improving quality across economic statistics’.
4. With regard to the volume of casework OSR were considering the potential reasons for the decline, which would be reported to the Regulation Committee. Other areas of focus for OSR included the development of OSR’s strategy which would cover what it means to be a credible and rigorous regulator in light of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Inquiry.

9. Report from the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee Chair

1. The Chair reported on the work of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee which had last met on 12 September.
2. The Committee had considered:
   1. the strategic risk profile with half of the risks reporting outside of risk appetite;
   2. the need to review and redraft the Strategic People Risk (SR5);
   3. a risk deep dive into technological resilience specifically legacy, with a proposal of a new governance digital services delivery framework;
   4. a report on the implementation of audit actions in response to the data governance audit with limited progress made. Good progress had been on the implementation of audit actions in response reports on AI, Reproducible Analytical Pipelines and Evergreen IT; and
   5. delivery of the Internal Audit Plan 2025/26 and plans for a review of the plan for the remainder of the year by the Head of Internal Audit and the Permanent Secretary.
3. The Committee had also considered the annual self-review of effectiveness including a skills review by the Chair.

10. Communications update

1. Peter Barron and Sarah Moore reported on recent media coverage of ONS since the last meeting.
2. The issues with retail sales figures for July 2025 had resulted in negative media coverage. As discussed earlier in the meeting the blog by James Benford, including an apology for both the delay and error focussed on providing clarity and transparency on what and why changes had been made. The blogs were in part aimed at addressing historical defensiveness by ONS. It was noted that improvements on stakeholder sentiment may be forthcoming in the coming months.

11. Economic Statistics Plan [SA(25)48]

1. James Benford introduced a paper which provided an update on the recent improvements to economic statistics and on progress of mobilising resources to deliver the Economic Statistics Plan (ESP).
2. James Benford noted his thanks to Grant Fitzner for his leadership of ESEG in the interim period, with progress made to identify the skills and resources needed to deliver the plan. Since joining key areas of focus included work to build trust within and across teams, developing governance to underpin delivery of the plan. The work on prioritisation was critical so as not put excessive pressure on colleagues. Stakeholder engagement was also a key area of focus.
3. Members discussed the update. With regard to the amber milestones reported it was noted that the ESP Steering Group would be discussing these and work was ongoing to align risk reporting with the Strategic Risk covering Quality economic statistics’(SR7). In terms of capability for delivery of the plan four GSS fast streamers had been recruited, adverts were currently live across other government departments and consideration was being given to secondments from other National Statistics Institutes. Integrating surveys within ESEG was progressing well with a focus on building trust amongst the teams. Given the size of the directorate private office support was being reviewed to ensure there was sufficient support across the different areas.
4. The Board noted the update. It was agreed that a substantive report to Board would be provided on a quarterly basis and oral updates would be provided at every meeting. Exceptional reporting would be scheduled as needed.

12. Update on the Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan [SA(25)49]

1. Alex Lambert introduced a paper which provided an update on progress made against the commitments set out in the Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan (IEP).
2. The Board heard that positive social survey improvements in survey data collection performance had been made as a result of IEP investment, although further work was needed to meet full social survey quality targets agreed with users. Field force resources had increased but challenges continued around attrition rates. The impact of the increased size of the field community would impact the next financial year, 2026/27 and would be considered as part of the next business planning process. The finance team were already aware of the financial risk.
3. With regard to business surveys significant progress had been made against the milestones. The replacement of end to end legacy technology for the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings was challenging due to the complexity of the methods and technology. Progress had been made toward eliminating paper-based questionnaires.
4. Members discussed the update highlighting that ONS is in a good position to be pioneering on the approach to survey response. Findings from phase one of the Trust project had demonstrated value in targeted communications with a five per cent increase in the TLFS response rate compared with the previous seven weeks. But the response was disproportionately among groups who are already better responders. With regard to risk reporting members noted that it would be useful going forward to understand whether the risks as reported were residual risks following risk mitigation and implementation of controls or gross risks.

13. TLFS/LFS [SA(25)50]

1. Alex Lambert, Liz McKeown and Jennet Woolford introduced a paper which provided an update on the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) Programme.
2. The Board heard that the TLFS programme reported Amber-Red at the August programme board meeting given the data quality risks associated with the integration of Northern Ireland data and the collection of Standard Industrial Classification/Standard Occupational Classification data. A new project had been created, the Household, Socioeconomic and Local project as part of the programme. The project had been set up to support user engagement, development and decisions on the TLFS Plus Survey.
3. It was noted that since Board papers were issued for this meeting three additional mitigations had been implemented to address the data rotation issue. Due to this issue the January 2026 milestone may not be met. At the end of October the programme would know whether the mitigating actions would enable the January 2026 to be met, but the current assessment was that April 2026 was more likely.
4. With regard to the broader communications context the approach to blogs by James Benford would provide a valuable addition for future labour market communications including improvements and challenges.
5. Members discussed the update and highlighted the potential for further harmonisation and or learning from NISRA’s experience with the TLFS. It was clarified that NISRA used a smaller sample size which enabled them to do more face to face follow up. James Benford and Phil Wales had agreed at this meeting to bring the teams together to discuss approaches and lessons learned.
6. The Board noted the update and the ongoing effective stakeholder engagement. ONS had good relationships across stakeholders, taking a transparent approach on delivery as the work progressed. It would be important to maintain this focus on stakeholder engagement as any new challenges arose and programme delivery continued. It was agreed that TLFS/LFS would continue to report bi-monthly to the Board.

14. Any other business

1. The Board will next meet on Thursday 30 October.