Review of the UK Statistics by Honorary Fellow Denise Lievesley released

The Cabinet Office published Honorary Fellow Denise Lievesley’s independent review of the UK Statistics Authority and the Government Response (pdf) on Tuesday 12 March. In her review that began in June 2023, Denise makes a series of recommendations in each of the areas of Governance, Efficacy, Accountability and Efficiency under the four quadrants of the Public Sector Bodies Review guidance.

By introduction, Denise writes

‘Statistics we can trust are essential for a healthy society as they help to ensure well-informed decisions by putting the best available evidence at the heart of policy development and implementation. They also enlighten through making explicit what is known through scientific evidence and, importantly, what is not known.’

Her recommendations include:

• The establishment of a Statistical Assembly involving key organisations inside and outside Government and across the four Nations, with the remit of determining and prioritising the UK’s needs for statistics through an open consultative process.
• The centre of government, led by Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and No. 10 must actively work to UKSA Review resolve the systemic, often cultural, barriers to data sharing between departments.
• Urging other departments to take ONS’s lead on ending pre-release access to their statistics in line with good practice internationally and in order to command confidence in the statistical system.
• The UKSA should step up efforts to build partnerships outside of government, particularly with universities and think tanks, given the clear economic and social benefits to this collaboration.

Read the Review and the Government Response.

Following the publication of Denise’s review, Sir Robert Chote, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority said,

‘I welcome the recommendations she has made to the Authority and to Ministers, and in particular the emphasis on tackling barriers to the sharing and linking of data from government departments and public bodies, which holds great potential for public benefit. ’

Watch Denise testify on the findings of her review to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

In this hearing Denise expressed disappointment that the Government has not committed to changing the Ministerial code to require Ministers to comply with the Statistics Code of Practice of the Office for Statistics Regulation. She pointed out that misuse of statistics, even if inadvertent, risks undermining trust.

Professor Denise Lievesley CBE is an Honorary Fellow of Green Templeton College, having been Principal of Green Templeton from 2015 until September 2020.

Among her former appointments before joining academia, Denise was Chief Executive of the English Health and Social Care Information Centre; Director of Statistics at UNESCO, where she founded the Institute for Statistics; and Director of the UK Data Archive. She served as Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society, the International Statistical Institute, the International Association for Official Statistics, and is one of two nominees currently standing for election as President of the American Statistical Association.