Official Statistics

Government grants statistics development plan

Updated 12 April 2023

1. Background

1.1 Purpose of this document

The Cabinet Office and the Government Grants Management Function (GGMF) are committed to the ongoing review and improvement of its published statistics to ensure they are of the highest quality and public value. As part of this commitment, we (GGMF) will publish ongoing statistics development plans.

We aim to continually improve the quality, trustworthiness and value of the Government Grants Data and Statistics publication. This development plan explains how we intend to do this.

1.2 The Government Grants Register and Government Grant Statistics

Government is committed to increasing transparency, enabling taxpayers to hold the state to account both on how their money is being spent and how decisions are made which affect their lives.

To meet this commitment, we publish Government Grants Data and Statistics which includes:

The Government Grants Register - a dataset of grant spending across government; covering general and formula grants at both scheme and award level.

The Government Grants Statistics Bulletin - This document explains and contextualises the published grants data. Published alongside this bulletin is a set of statistical tables, displaying all figures used in the report in a more accessible format.

1.3 Statistical classification

Government Grants Data and Statistics are published as Official Statistics.

2. Development Plan

The following is a list of the GGMF’s actions to improve these statistics since the previous release and expected actions going forward.

2.1 Actions taken to improve the publication and underlying data since the previous release

Improving this publication

The GGMF has taken the following actions to improve the grants statistics publication:

• Updated the documentation of the underlying data quality and the methodology for producing the publication. See the Quality and Methodology information (QMI) document published alongside this release.
• Continued to understand our users: Reviewed the feedback gathered through the user consultation released as part of the last publication, and through engagement with departments.
• One known user of grants data is 360Giving who provide an open data standard for grants data. The GGMF has engaged with 360Giving throughout the production of these statistics to ensure that the published awards data meet this standard, and will continue to ensure we meet this requirement in future publications.

Improving the grants data

The GGMF has taken the following measures to improve the underlying grants data:

• Increased the level of data validation on the Government Grants Information System (GGIS) to increase the quality of the data input by users, for example implementing data validation checks on recipient IDs to ensure they are uploaded to the GGIS in the correct format based on the type of recipient organisation.
• Enhanced the enrichment process using external data sources within the GGIS to verify our grant recipient data and enable greater consistency within the data. This gives users a clearer view of which organisations have received grant money from across government, and allows users to combine this data with external databases such as Companies house.
• Working alongside departments, we have updated our comprehensive Government Grants Data Standard that specifies the data required in the GGIS. This included changes such as:
• Mandating the use of UK Provider Reference Numbers (UKPRNs) as an identifier for recipients that are UK educational institutions, to increase the accuracy, consistency and transparency of recipient data.
• Adding separate ‘budget’ and ‘actual’ fields for grant scheme and award values, to better understand the values provided by departments.
• Including details of all new validations present in the GGIS so departments can better understand data requirements, and therefore increase data quality at point of entry.
• Improved automated processes for highlighting data quality issues to departments, allowing regular feedback and monitoring during data collection.
• Improved our reproducible analytical pipeline (RAP) for the process of getting from the data to the publication using the coding language Python.
• Provided additional analytical assistance to departments to improve data quality and completeness.
• Provided training to and engaged with departments regarding the GGIS and the updated data standard.
• Developed specific plans with individual departments where needed, to ensure they can continue to meet these data requirements and improve data quality.

2.2 What we will do

In order to improve this publication in future, we plan to:

• Continue to engage with users of the data and integrate further feedback. (Ongoing)
• Continue to provide training to and engage with department users regarding the GGIS and the associated data standard. (Ongoing)
• Continue to develop specific plans with individual departments where needed, to ensure they can continue to meet these data requirements and improve data quality. (Ongoing)
• Review the improved recipient data and add recipient level analysis to future publications as appropriate. (Ongoing)
• Explore ways to drive consistency in the type of values (budgeted or actual) that departments provide, including exploring more automated ways of obtaining grants data for the GGIS. (Ongoing)
• Explore the viability of collecting data on the end beneficiaries of government grant spending. (Ongoing)
• Continue to engage with 360Giving to understand updates to the 360Giving Data Standard, so that updates can be adopted into the GGMF’s Government Grants Data Standard where appropriate. (Ongoing)