Independent review of the UKSA: Announcement (HTML)
Updated 12 March 2024
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As part of the Public Bodies Review Programme, the government has appointed Professor Denise Lievesley to lead an independent review of the UK Statistics Authority (‘The Authority’). The review will establish how the organisation is performing and provide independent challenges, to ensure that the Authority is effectively delivering necessary services, that it is doing so as efficiently as possible, and that it has clear governance and lines of accountability.
The Authority was established by the Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007 with the statutory objective to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that ‘serve the public good’. It is a non-ministerial department, reporting directly to the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly and is sponsored by the Cabinet Office.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the Authority’s statistical production function and the UK’s largest producer of official statistics on a range of key economic, social and demographic topics.
The Authority also contains a regulatory function called the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) which delivers the Authority’s work to increase public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics.
Scope of the review
The review will be organised according to the four quadrants identified by the Public Bodies Review Programme - Efficacy, Accountability, Governance, and Efficiency.
Efficacy - The review will focus on the outcomes for users of the Authority’s work. It will explore whether the UKSA is producing statistics that respond to genuine user need, for example producing high quality, respected official statistics to support the government to manage the economy, drive growth, productivity and Government efficiency, and informing international trade policy, given its underpinning remit is to promote statistics for the public good.
Accountability - The review will focus on the adequacy of accountability arrangements with the Cabinet Office and whether ministers have enough assurance to meet their duties as set out in Managing Public Money.
Governance - The review will consider the governance arrangements, including the adequacy of the independence of the Authority, and whether there is any conflict between the production and regulation functions it performs. The review will also consider the UKSA’s approach to UK-wide data, board effectiveness reviews, and board diversity.
Efficiency - The Authority has already committed to achieving efficiencies over the current spending review period, including efficiencies worth 10% of its baseline budget in 2024/25. As part of the Efficiency and Savings Review that was announced at Autumn Statement 2022, the Authority is looking to deliver further efficiencies in 2023/24 and 2024/25. Therefore, this review will not seek to identify further efficiencies on top of the existing plans for the spending review 1 period but will assess if the Authority’s plan to deliver the current commitments is feasible and any opportunities for longer term efficiencies.
The full Terms of Reference are available on the UKSA Review webpage.
Timing and process
We envisage that the review will publish a final report later this year.
The review will report to Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Minister of State, Cabinet Office.
The Lead Reviewer will be Professor Denise Lievesley CBE. As part of her review she will be supported by relevant subject matter experts, as well as a Challenge Panel: Guy Goodwin, Professor Guy Nason, Professor Rebecca Riley, Professor Alice Sullivan, Dr Ben Warner and Professor Sir John Curtice.
Call for evidence
The review will consult widely, including seeking views from devolved administrations.
If you would like to submit evidence to the review, please consult the Call for Evidence Guidance Document found on the UKSA Review webpage. The deadline for responding is 11:59pm BST on Friday 7 July 2023.