Next meeting: 27 February 2025, London Boardroom

Members present

• Sir Robert Chote (Chair)
• Dr Jacob Abboud
• Professor Sir Ian Diamond
• Ed Humpherson
• Emma Rourke
• Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter
• Penny Young

Other attendees

• Pete Benton (for item 9),
• June Bowman
• Megan Cooper (for item 7)
• Mike Keoghan
• Alex Lambert (for item 8)
• Liz McKeown (for item 8)
• Sarah Moore
• Tom Taylor
• Rhys Thomas (for item 7)

Secretariat

• Sally Jones

Apologies

• Professor Dame Carol Propper

1. Apologies

1. Apologies were noted from Professor Dame Carol Propper.

2. Declarations of Interest

1. Ed Humpherson declared an interest following his appointment as a trustee of Security Women, noting there was no conflict with his Authority role. The Authority’s Register of Interest had been updated.

3. Minutes and matters arising from previous meetings

1. The minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 November 2024 were approved.

4. Report from the Authority Chair [SA(25)01]

1. Non-Executive Directors had met before the meeting and discussed topics including the UK Statistics Assembly and the Future of Population and Migration Statistics (FPMS).
2. Sir Robert Chote welcomed June Bowman, recently appointed Deputy Director Policy and Strategy, to her first meeting.
3. Sir Robert commended Sarah Moore and colleagues for all of their work on the first UK Statistics Assembly which had been held on 22 January. Professor David Hand, Chair of the National Statistician’s Expert User Advisory Committee (NSUEAC) would be drafting the report for consideration by NSEUAC on 10 February ahead of a Board discussion on 27 February. Consideration was now being given to the approach to the Chair’s annual public lecture, in response to the Assembly, which would provide an update on the work of the statistical system and priorities for the year ahead, building on the Office for Statistics Regulation State of the Statistical System Report.
4. Sir Robert reported that the Minister for the Cabinet Office had approved the appointment of three new Non-Executive Directors. Peter Barron, Professor Mairi Spowage and Dr Sarah Walsh had been appointed for a period of three years with effect from 31 January 2025.
5. On behalf of the Authority Board Sir Robert noted condolences and paid tribute to Professor David Rhind. Professor Rhind was a founding non-executive board member from 2008, Deputy Chair between 2012 and 2015 and Chair of the Authority’s Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. He was a former Chair of the Authority’s predecessor, the Statistics Commission, before the founding of the UK Statistics Authority by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Professor Rhind was an eminent academic geographer and former Vice Chancellor of City University.

5. Report from the Chief Executive [SA(25)02]

1. Sir Ian provided the Board with an overview of activities and issues since the last meeting, highlighting the following:
   1. the Ambitious, Radical and Inclusive Economic Statistics (ARIES) transformation programme had achieved 83 per cent of its benefits. The ARIES programme comprised of a number of projects including Prices, which would deliver a range of improvements in March 2025. It was noted that the introduction of scanner data would be dual run for a year to allow time for quality assurance ahead of going live in March 2026. A more detailed report on delivery of the ARIES programme would be provided to the Board in the coming months;
   2. the government response to stage one of the COVID Inquiry had referenced ONS;
   3. data sharing across government continued to be challenge and a key area of focus for the Integrated Data Service Programme.
   4. Sir Ian would be chairing a meeting of United Nations Conference of European Statisticians Bureau meeting in February;
   5. publication on 30 January of Crime Statistics in England and Wales for the year ending September 2024. Work was ongoing by ONS to transform the Crime Survey for England and Wales;
   6. business planning 2025/26 was near completion alongside preparation for the second phase of the Spending Review 2025 (SR25);
   7. the ONS Local analytical advisory service had been nominated in three categories in the fifth Annual Analysis in Government Awards;
   8. ONS’s response to the results to the 2024 People Survey;
   9. the appointment of Jane Naylor, Steve Ellerd Elliott and Jason Bradbury as a job share for the role of Deputy Head of the Government Statistical Service; and
   10. Steffan Jones, Director, Jont Data and Analysis Centre – Cabinet Office, had been appointed as joint chair of the Departmental Directors of Analysis Board.
2. Board members discussed the update and highlighted a number of points in relation to the 2024 People Survey results. It was noted that ONS’s People Committee had convened two dedicated meetings to discuss and agree areas of corporate focus in response to the results including leadership and managing change, which would be underpinned by local responses within each directorate. It was agreed that further disaggregated information on the results of the People Survey, including a time series, would be shared with the Board when available.
3. The Board heard about the progress by ONS on the long-standing issue of delays to coronial data associated with drug related deaths. A joint ONS and Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) paper had been sent to the Ministry of Justice for discussion early February. Sir Ian would be giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on labour market and migration statistics on 4 February. With regard to the Government Statistical Service Vision – Strength in Numbers, it was agreed that Jane Naylor would be invited to report back to the Board at a future meeting.

6. Report from the Director General of Regulation [SA(25)03]

1. Ed Humpherson provided an update on regulatory activity. The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) continued to promote the consultation for the Code of Practice for Statistics with stakeholder feedback to date overall supportive. With regard to OSR People Survey results it was noted that there had been a slight decrease in scores.
2. Board members discussed OSR’s role in response to the SR25 process in highlighting a risk-based approach to issues across the UK Statistical System. It was noted that OSR published its independent review of the State of the Statistics System annually, with the next publication planned for July 2025. While OSR provided this independent view it was for departments to make the case for funding in line with the approach set out by HM Treasury (HMT).

7. ONS business planning 2025/26 and Spending Review 2025 [SA(25)04]

1. Tom Taylor introduced a paper which provided an update on business planning 25/26; the second stage of SR25, which would set budgets for 2026/27 to 2028/29. Tom Taylor noted thanks to Rhys Thomas, Megan Cooper and the finance team for their work on business planning, while simultaneously preparing for year end 2024/25 and the second phase of SR25.
2. The Board heard that the interim response covering the zero-based review requirement of SR25 was 27 February with a final submission by 10 April. The review was being overseen by Dr Jacob Abboud. A specific zero-based review session was being scheduled for the OSR including Professor Dame Carol Propper, as Chair of Regulation Committee. It was noted that the outcome of the Statistics Assembly held on 22 January and the refresh of the Authority Strategy would inform business planning and SR25.
3. Board members discussed the update. The following points were considered in discussion:
   1. the Authority’s response to the spending review process should enable HMT to consider whether the Authority’s settlement would help measure the economy effectively;
   2. delivery progress of a plan of early warning indicators and a plan for monitoring and evaluation of priority outputs, as part of the SR25 stage one settlement conditions, was at an early stage. The approach would need to be agreed with HMT and other key stakeholders. The system of reporting would need to be timely with sufficient granularity of detail including both leading and lagging indicators;
   3. the need for clarity on the overall level of change across the organisation setting out which activities would be stopped and where efficiencies would be achieved;
   4. the importance of stakeholder engagement underpinned by a communications plan to inform users of those areas of work that would not continue. This linked to the balance between ambition and deliverability and the need for agility in order to deliver improvements; and
   5. the work by ONS to explore proposals for mandatory completion of household surveys was at an early stage.
4. The Board would remain engaged as the work progressed. A draft ONS Business Plan 2025/26 would be provided for the February Board meeting. Dr Jacob Abboud would provide oversight of the second phase of the SR25 process as agreed.

8. Transformed Labour Force Survey/Labour Force Survey [SA(25)06]

1. As this area of work is policy in development, the minute from this item will be published upon completion.

9. Integrated Data Service [SA(25)07]

1. Pete Benton introduced a paper which provided an update on the delivery progress of the Integrated Data Service.
2. The Board heard that the report from the review undertaken by the Cabinet Office supported by HMT and DSIT had been received that morning (30 January). Further details would be provided for the next meeting. The key areas of focus would continue to include prioritising the onboarding of high-value analysis and datasets. Discussions were ongoing with colleagues at DSIT regarding the National Data Library and with Cabinet Office colleagues to provide use cases for the IDS relating to government missions.
3. Board members discussed the update and highlighted the management information, which set out progress of the IDS against the critical success factors with some reporting red indicating issues in terms of delivery.

10. Any other business

1. The Board would next meet on Thursday 27 February.