APCP – Stakeholder

Overview

The Stakeholder Advisory Panel on Consumer Prices (APCP-Stakeholder) provides independent advice to the National Statistician on the uses and applications of consumer price indices.

Introduction

The establishment of the panels was recommended by an independent review of the governance of price statistics, which considered matters relating to the governance arrangements and structures underpinning the production of consumer price indices by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In June 2015, the UK Statistics Authority announced the formation of two independent advisory panels on consumer price statistics: a technical Panel to advise the National Statistician on technical aspects of the statistics; and a stakeholder Panel to provide advice on the uses and applications of price indices.

Functions

The  Stakeholder Panel provides independent advice to the National Statistician on the uses and applications of consumer price indices, to ensure that these statistics meet the needs of users and ‘serve the public good’.

Specifically, the Panel will:

• monitor and provide advice on the ONS consumer prices work programme;
• raise other relevant issues or topics on the use and application of prices statistics, including on behalf of the user community; and
• provide a report to the National Statistician each year, describing its activities and plans.

Reporting and Governance

The APCP-Stakeholder advises the National Statistician, who is also the Authority Chief Executive and a member of the UK Statistics Authority Board.

The chair of the APCP-Stakeholder will present a report annually on the activities of the Panel, for the National Statistician, who in turn can decide whether specific matters need to be discussed by the UK Statistics Authority Board, who are responsible for the compilation, maintenance, and publication of the Retail Prices Index (RPI). This report will be created as a joint document outlining the activities and decisions of both the Technical and Stakeholder Panels. It is to be prepared, by ONS, following the final APCP-Stakeholder meeting in September, and published prior to the final UK Statistics Authority Board in December.

Relationship with the APCP-Technical

The Stakeholder Panel secretariat works with the Stakeholder Panel chair and respective members, the secretariat of the Technical Panel, the UK Statistics Authority and ONS to ensure that the activities of the Stakeholder and Technical Panels are coordinated.

Chairing

The chair of the APCP-Stakeholder is appointed via open competition and will be reviewed periodically by the National Statistician. The position of the chair is remunerated via a formal contract, reviewed at the end of their three-year term.

The chair sets the Panel’s agenda, guided by the strategic direction of the UK Statistics Authority Board and the Chief Executive and by the needs of ONS.

The chair also represents the Panel publicly, as necessary.

Membership

Membership of the Panel provides for a mixture of interests and expertise. Members are appointed for fixed terms of three years (with the current term running until December 2024), by the chair and the National Statistician. Reappointments will be permitted. The composition of the Panel will be reviewed periodically by the chair and the National Statistician.

The role of each member of the APCP-Stakeholder is to participate in consideration of the full-range of issues within the remit of the Panel.

In general, substitutes will not be permitted to attend Panel meetings unless with express invitation from the chair. However, for the Bank of England or HM Treasury, the chair accepts that it is sometimes necessary for the Panel member to delegate attendance of the Stakeholder Panel meeting to a colleague, if they are unable attend.

Members are not remunerated. All reasonable travel and subsistence costs will be reimbursed.

Transparency / Confidentiality

The Panel will operate transparently. Meeting agendas, papers and minutes will be published shortly after each meeting, unless it is deemed that they are of a sensitive nature. The sensitivity of each paper will be discussed during the meeting, and decisions that have been made will be clearly stated in the minutes, and on the APCP-Stakeholder Minutes and papers page of the UKSA website.

• Papers that are deemed to be of a sensitive nature (classified APCP-Stakeholder MARKET SENSITIVE) will be withheld from publication.
• Papers that are draft versions of scheduled publications will not be published ahead of their scheduled date, but the APCP-Stakeholder minutes will clearly state when the final document is expected to be published.
• Work-in-progress papers, for which no publication is scheduled, will be published and clearly labelled.
• Any papers sent by additional correspondence will be published alongside the documents for the following meeting, subject to being non-sensitive and not a draft of a planned publication.
• Any document will remain confidential until published (and will be classified as APCP-Stakeholder CONFIDENTIAL).
• In exceptional circumstances, a document could be classified as APCP-Stakeholder SHARABLE. It will be published immediately on the UKSA website and the link will then be shareable by Panel members to colleagues and others.

Panel members will have the opportunity to comment on the minutes before publication for issues of accuracy. The Panel chair will have the final sign off on the minutes. The minutes are made publicly available within six weeks following the meeting date.

Code of Conduct

Panel members are expected to provide their expertise and advice on the topics they are asked to consider. Members are welcome to share papers in advance with colleagues on a need-to-know basis to develop their advice within the constraints outlined in the Confidentiality Undertaking which all panel members are requested to sign. If Panel members wish to share a paper more widely, this can be decided by the chair of the Panel on a case-by-case basis.

On occasion members will be asked to consider topics of a sensitive nature. In these instances, certain restrictions will apply. These will be clearly set out by the Panel secretariat in advance of receiving any papers. Members who feel they are not able to abide with the restrictions will not receive papers and will be asked not to attend the relevant meeting.

Secretariat

The secretariat will be provided by ONS Prices Division.

Meetings

The Panel meets at a minimum of 3 times each year.