Consultation outcome

Changes to official statistics on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard: consultation document

Updated 8 April 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

1. Background

The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) team in DBT aims to produce high-quality statistics that are trusted, relevant and meet user needs. This consultation proposes to discontinue the cumulative official statistics published on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard, and instead publish management information data on the performance of individual digital products on the platform. To understand how this proposal will impact users, DDaT is seeking feedback on current usage of the great.gov.uk performance dashboard and our proposed changes to performance reporting for digital products on the platform.

2. Summary

We propose to make the following changes to official statistics currently published on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard:

• discontinue the current publication of official statistics on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard, and instead publish regular management information on the performance of individual digital products on the platform
• align performance statistics with GDS Service Standard 10, with regular reporting of digital take-up, completion rate, user satisfaction and cost-efficiency indicators for each digital product on great.gov.uk

Any decisions about whether to change the content and classification of great.gov.uk performance statistics will be informed by responses to this consultation.

3. How to respond

The simplest way to respond to this consultation is through our online questionnaire.

Alternatively, if you wish to submit information which cannot be provided via a web form, please complete a response form and email this to ddat.evaluation@businessandtrade.gov.uk

When responding, please state whether you are responding as an individual or representing the view of an organisation.

3.1 Confidentiality and data protection

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your information. For information on how we collect and process your personal data in accordance with data protection legislation please consult our public consultations privacy notice.

We will summarise all responses and publish this summary on GOV.UK. This summary will include a list of names or organisations that responded but not the names, addresses, or other contact details of individuals. Please indicate in your consultation response if you do not wish for your organisation or responses to be made public.

3.2 Quality assurance

This consultation has been carried out in accordance with the government’s consultation principles.

If you have any complaints about the way this consultation has been conducted (as opposed to comments about the proposals which are the subject of this consultation), please email dit.bru@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

4. Current official statistics

DDaT currently publishes service performance indicators (SPIs) on great.gov.uk to indicate how the platform and its services have performed since they were launched in 2016. The SPIs were defined in 2016 and have not been reviewed since. This data is collated and published cumulatively from the date of the site’s launch in November 2016 as official statistics and can be accessed via the great.gov.uk performance dashboard.

Currently published SPIs include:

• the number of services on great.gov.uk
• the number of registered users on great.gov.uk
• the number of opportunities published for export opportunities
• the number of enquiries submitted for export opportunities
• the number of unique companies assisted for selling online overseas
• the number of applications received for selling online overseas
• the number of business profiles published for the business profiles service
• the number of enquiries submitted for Invest in GB

Question 1: Have you used the statistics on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard? By ‘used’ we mean engaged with the contents of the dashboard to inform your work or areas of interest? If yes, please describe how and why use them.

Question 2: If the statistics currently available on the performance dashboard were to be discontinued, what impact would this have on you and your work?

5. Proposed changes

GDS Service Standard 10 stipulates that departments need to collect and use performance data from all channels, online and offline. These need to be iterated with the aim to align metrics and data collection practices as closely as possible with user, developer, and strategic needs.

GDS Service Standard 10 also stipulates 4 mandatory key performance indicators (KPIs) that departments must publish for each digital product or service:

• digital take-up: the percentage of people using government service online in relation to other channels, for example paper or telephone
• completion rate: the number of digital transactions that users complete as a percentage of all digital transactions that users start
• user satisfaction: user feedback about the service at various stages of using it
• cost per transaction (cost-efficiency): the total cost of providing the service - including digital support costs - through all channels, divided by the total number of completed transactions

To meet this standard, DDaT proposes the following changes:

5.1  Discontinue the current publication of Official Statistics on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard, and instead publish regular management information on the performance of individual digital products on the platform:

DDaT proposes to discontinue these official statistics on the basis that:

• the published statistics do not meet GDS Service Standard 10
• publishing one data point cumulatively does not provide any capacity to benchmark performance or identify trends over time
• the published statistics do not reflect the change in the number and composition of services on great.gov.uk since its launch in 2016. For example, the current SPI for investment services reflects the performance of the Invest in GB campaign, which is a historic marketing campaign that is no longer active
• the current official statistics label for the SPIs is not fit for purpose given the iterative nature of the GDS indicators, their need to be continually updated and refined, and due to the nature of data tracking on Google Analytics

DDaT would instead publish regular  management information data on the performance of digital products currently hosted on the great.gov.uk. This data will be updated to include new digital products that have launched since the platform went live in November 2016, and will be accessible via individual product dashboards on great.gov.uk. DDaT is also scoping options to publish this data on GOV.UK in due course. Management information will be continually revised to ensure the performance of all live products is captured, and inactive products removed.

Please note, automated dashboards will be implemented incrementally for each digital product. Therefore, there will be a time lag between official statistics being discontinued and management information being available for the complete set of products on great.gov.uk.

Question 2: Do you agree with the proposal to discontinue the current publication of Official Statistics on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard, and instead publish regular management information on the performance of individual digital products on the platform? If not, please explain why.

5.2 Align performance statistics with GDS Service Standard 10, with regular reporting of digital take-up, completion rate, user satisfaction and cost-efficiency indicators for each digital product on great.gov.uk.

GDS performance indicators will be published as management information data as opposed to official statistics. This data will be accessible on great.gov.uk via individual product dashboards. Indicators and individual digital products will be incrementally added to the published set when data collection methods have been tested and automated product dashboards have been built. These statistics will be updated when new data is made available, allowing users to track changes in the performance of our digital products over time.

DDaT is also scoping options to publish monthly management information on GOV.UK in due course, covering the GDS indicators for and updated list of digital products on the great.gov.uk platform.  

Question 3: Do you agree with the proposal to align performance statistics with GDS Service Standard 10 for each digital product on great.gov.uk? If not, please explain why.

Question 4: Are there any significant issues with or gaps in the coverage great.gov.uk performance statistics which are not addressed in this consultation?

6. What happens next?

After the consultation closes on 4 December 2023, we will consider the responses we receive when determining whether to implement the proposed changes, modify them, or maintain the status quo.

The planned timeline is as follows:

4 December 2023 – Consultation closes

March 2024 – Responses to consultation to be published