Consultation outcome

Response to Public Consultation on Great.gov.uk Official Statistics, 2023

Updated 8 April 2024

1. Introduction

The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) team in Department for Business and Trade (DBT) aims to produce high-quality statistics that are trusted, relevant and meet user needs. From October to December 2023, we consulted on proposed changes to the Official Statistics on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard to help achieve these aims.

The consultation was launched with a view to discontinue the current publication in replace of more relevant management information data on the Government Digital Service (GDS) mandatory indicators for each digital product on the great.gov.uk platform. 

Four organisations responded to the consultation. In addition, 3 members of DBT provided supporting information for the consultation via email. We thank these respondents for their time producing considered responses, which were valuable in making decisions on changes to the statistics publication.    

While the formal consultation has ended, DDaT is committed to continuous improvement of its statistics publications and welcomes feedback and suggestions to ddat.evaluation@businessandtrade.gov.uk at any time. 

2. Summary

Two proposals were included in the consultation.

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. 

No responses to the consultation objected to this course of action.

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.

No responses objected to this course of action.

The consultation also asked respondents whether they thought there are any significant issues with, or gaps in the coverage great.gov.uk performance statistics which weren’t addressed in the consultation. No respondents provided meaningful responses to this question.  

3. Detailed analysis and DBT’s response

3.1 Continue publishing a revised set of the current metrics on the great.gov.uk performance dashboard, but as management information data.

DDaT received one response to 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 products on the platform. This respondent did not object to this course of action. However, supporting information, supplied by members of DBT, provided compelling evidence to continue publishing some of the current performance metrics.

DBT’s response

DBT will cease publishing data on performance metrics that are no longer relevant, including Invest in GB and, following its retirement in 2023, Selling Online Overseas. DBT will also cease publishing data on the number of services on the great.gov.uk platform, the number of business profiles published, and the number of opportunities published, and enquiries submitted for Export Opportunities. It is deemed that the GDS indicators will provide a better range of indicators on how these products are performing.

DBT will continue providing time series data on “The number of registered users on the great.gov.uk platform” but these will be published as management information, not Official Statistics. Cuts will be provided quarterly instead of monthly, and publication frequency will be reduced to each quarter.

3.2 Align performance statistics with GDS Service Standard 10, by publishing quarterly management information data on the GDS mandatory indicators for each digital product on great.gov.uk.

DDaT does not currently publish data on the 4 GDS mandatory performance indicators for digital products on the great.gov.uk platform. These include: 

• 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 complete transactions

DDaT received one response to the proposal to 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. This respondent did not provide meaningful objection to this course of action.  

DBT’s response

DDaT will begin publishing data on the 4 GDS mandatory performance indicators for each digital product on the great.gov.uk platform. DBT will publish these on a quarterly basis, as management information data, with releases taking place at the end of June, September, December, and March each financial year.

The first release is scheduled for the end of September 2024 and will include digital take-up, completion rate and cost efficiency data for a subset of products on the platform across the period from July to September.

From December onwards, user satisfaction indicators will be incrementally added to the published set, along with the complete set of digital products on great.gov.uk. The publication will be revised each quarter to account for new and discontinued digital services, so that the publication more accurately reflects the composition of the platform. 

It is hoped that data on the 4 GDS mandatory performance indicators will be accessible on great.gov.uk via dashboards. DDaT is also scoping options to publish management information on GOV.UK in due course. 

Where possible, DDaT will commit to upholding the Government Statistical Service Code of Practice to maximise data quality, transparency, and impartiality when publishing management information data on the GDS mandatory performance for each digital product on great.gov.uk.

4. What happens next?

Throughout the remainder of 2024 DBT will be implementing the changes to great.gov.uk performance reporting described above. Key dates are listed below: 

End of June 2024 – Final monthly publication of current Official Statistics on great.gov.uk performance dashboard. 

End of September 2024 – First quarterly publication of revised performance metrics,^{[footnote 1]} as management information data. First publication of new quarterly management information on GDS mandatory indicators for a subset of digital products on great.gov.uk. Note, user satisfaction indicators will be incrementally added to the published set as these become available.

End of December 2024 – Second publication of quarterly management information on GDS mandatory indicators, for a larger subset of products on great.gov.uk. 

End of March 2025 – Third publication of quarterly management information on GDS mandatory indicators, for the complete set of digital products on great.gov.uk as of December 2024. 

---

1. The number of registered users on the great.gov.uk platform. ↩