Office For National Statistics

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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the United Kingdom government Departments of the United Kingdom government charged with the collection and publication of statistics related to the economy, population and society of the United Kingdom at national and local levels. For historical reasons, it incorporates the General Register Office so is also responsible for the registration of births, deaths and marriages in England and Wales.

The ONS was formed on 1 April 1996 by the merger of the Central Statistical Office, UK and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS).John Pullinger (1997). "The Creation of the Office for National Statistics", International Statistical Review, Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. 291-308.

Office Locations The ONS has a head office in the city of Newport, South Wales, and other offices in Pimlico in London, Titchfield in Hampshire and Southport Office for National Statistics: location maps, www.statistics.gov.uk, retrieved 10 June 2007.. In addition, there is the Family Records Centre in Islington Office for National Statistics: location maps, www.statistics.gov.uk, retrieved 10 June 2007., London, where censuses over 100 years old, electoral registers and indexes to the registers of births, deaths and marriages in England and Wales may be consulted, and copies of census entries and certificates can be purchased.

The London office was the head office until April 2006 when the corporate headquarters was moved to Newport "Newport to be ONS headquarters", National Statistics news release, 20 September 2004, retrieved 9 June 2007. following the Lyons Review "The Lyons Review: Independent Review of public sector relocation", HM Treasury website. on public sector relocation. Initially, the London office was in three buildings but due to reductions, most London staff are now in 1 Drummond Gate. The main London office is expected to close by April 2010 by which time the ONS policy is for its statistical activities to be concentrated in Titchfield and Newport "ONS set to close down London HQ", news report from the BBC website. The ONS asserts that recruitment and training of quality staff in South Wales, where data collection and analysis already takes place, will ensure that there is no risk to the quality of its services and that it is managing the risks associated with the changes which it is implementing in a planned and gradual way "Stats staff 'quitting' over move", news report from the BBC website, 14 May 2007.. However the plan to discontinue all remaining statistical activity in London is proving controversial amid claims that the shift of functions from London and the impending closure of the London office could have serious implications for the future of certain particular sets of statistics. These include health statistics, National Accounts, Retail and Consumer Prices and Labour Market Statistics. These risks derive from the fact that few of the experienced staff working in these highly technical areas are expected to be willing to relocate to Newport, resulting in a substantial loss of expertise and a consequent threat to the continued quality of the statistics Debate on the Statistics and Registration Service Bill in the House of Lords, 24 April 2007, Hansard, Column 597.. In a submission to the Parliamentary Treasury Sub Committee, the Bank of England too has expressed concern over the relocation of the ONS to Newport, saying, that "the relocation programme poses serious risks to the maintenance of the quality of macroeconomic data. If substantial numbers of ONS staff are unwilling to relocate, the loss of skilled individuals could have a severe impact on a range of statistics." "Bank of England comments on recent ONS performance", a submission made by the Bank of England to the Treasury Sub-Committee inquiry into progress on the efficiency programme in the Chancellor's departments, May 2007. "Bank warns on ONS move to Wales", news report from the BBC website, 10 May 2007.. The director of ONS has vigorously defended ONS implementation of government policy on civil service relocation and the decision to concentrate staff in the three locations outside London "Statistics officers get the measure of relocation", article by Karen Dunnell, Financial Times, 4 June 2007, retrieved 7 June 2007..

Heads of the Office: National Statistician Directors are de facto Permanent Secretary but do not use that title. As the ONS incorporates the OPCS, the Director is also the Registrar General for England and Wales. In addition, he or she is ex officio the Head of the Government Statistical Service. The first Director of ONS was Professor Tim Holt. Subsequent Directors have had an additional title, the National Statistician. The second Director was Len Cook. He was succeeded by Karen Dunnell on 1 September 2005 "National Statistician - Director Office for National Statistics", 10 Downing Street press notice, 4 August 2005, retrieved 9 June 2007..

Independence Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer (now Prime Minister), announced on 28 November 2005, Statement to the House of Commons on the review of the Framework for National Statistics, by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 28 November 2005. that the government intended to publish plans in early 2006 to legislate to render the ONS and the statistics it generates independent of government on a model based on the independence of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Budget Statement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 22 March 2006 This was originally a 1997 Labour manifesto commitment Labour Party Manifesto, General Election 1997, Keele University website. and was also the policy of the Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrats Manifesto General Election 2005. and Conservatives "Let Parliament appoint new UK statistics chief", press release from Conservative Party website. parties. Such independence was also sought by the Royal Statistical Society "A Vision for National Statistics", Royal Statistical Society. and the Statistics Commission. "Legislation to build trust in statistics", a report by the Statistics Commission.The National Statistician would be directly accountable to Parliament through a more widely-constituted independent governing Statistics Board. "Statistics And Registration Service Bill", House of Commons Explanatory Note to the Bill, para. 7-8. Retrieved 10 June 2007. The ONS would be a non-ministerial government department so that the staff, including the Director, would remain as civil servants but without being under direct ministerial control. "Statistics And Registration Service Bill", House of Commons Explanatory Note to the Bill, para. 42. Retrieved 10 June 2007.The National Statistician, Karen Dunnell, stated that legislation would help improve public trust in official statistics "National Statistician welcomes Statistics and Registration Service Bill", news release from ONS website. although the ONS already acts independently according to its own published guidelines, the National Statistics Code of Practice, "National Statistics Code of Practice" ONS website which sets out the key principles and standards that official statisticians, including those in other parts of the government statistical service, are expected to follow and uphold.

The details of the plans for independence were considered in Parliament during the 2006/2007 session and resulted in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. "Statistics and Registration Service Bill", progress of the Bill through the UK Parliament from Parliament website. In July 2007, Sir Michael Scholar was nominated by the government to be the three day-a-week non-executive chairman of the Statistics Board which, to re-establish faith in the integrity of government statistics, will take on statutory responsibility for oversight of UK statistics in April 2008 and will oversee the Office for National Statistics. It will also have a duty to assess all UK government statistics. Following Gordon Brown's announcement of new constitutional arrangements for public appointments, Sir Michael also became, on 18 July, the first such nominee to appear before the House of Commons Treasury Committee and to have his nomination subject to confirmation by the House. "Whitehall veteran in frame for statistics chief post", Financial Times, 18 July 2007.

Work of the ONS Where data is broken down by geographical area, this is usually done by the areas defined in the ONS coding system.

The principal areas of data collection are:

Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry
Commerce, Energy and Industry
Crime and Justice
Economy
Education and Training
Health and Care (Among numerous regular surveys, such as the General Household survey, the Labour Force Survey and the census that takes place every 10 years, ONS runs the England and Wales Longitudinal Survey, which monitors the health, address changes and fertility of a 1% sample of the population of England and Wales over time for statistical purposes).
Labour Market
Natural and Built Environment
Population and Migration
Public Sector and Other
Social and Welfare
Transport, Travel and Tourism

Statisticians are also employed by many other Government departments and agencies, and these statisticians often collect and publish data. For example, data on Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry come primarily from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Along with economic data on which the Treasury and Bank of England rely for decision-making, many of the statistics that receive widespread media attention are issued by the Home Office, the Department of Health (United Kingdom), and the Department for Education and Skills.

The statistical work of the ONS has, since June 2000, been scrutinized by the Statistics Commission, an independent body with its own chairman and small staff.

The Blue Book Annually, the Office for National Statistics publish their findings in the so-called Blue Book. It contains the estimates of the domestic and national product, income and expenditure of the United Kingdom, and is available as hardcopy, as well as a web version. United Kingdom National Accounts - The Blue Book 2006

Education of Statisticians The Office for National Statistics collaborates with the University of Southampton in the teaching of a MSc in Official Statistics, the programme has been in running since 2003. MSc in Official Statistics, University of Southampton.

Criticism of the ONS Len Cook, when National Statistician, described himself as the country's most abused civil servant Minutes of evidence given before the Select Committee on Treasury, 30 October 2002.. Occasional errors and revisions accounts for some past criticism while the allocation of Private Finance Initiative expenditure (albeit following Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and international statistical guidelines according to who carries the risk) has attracted political attention.Many of the most controversial topics for statistics issued by government do not come from ONS though they are expected to meet National Statistics standards. Crime statistics and other data (e.g. health and education) that could be deemed to assess the effectiveness of government policies often attract media scepticism. The compulsory nature of the census (unlike most other surveys by academics and market researchers) differentiates ONS from other data collectors (apart from the Inland Revenue). The Office for National Statistics won the 2004 Big Brother Award for the "Most Heinous Government Organisation" from the campaigning organisation Privacy International for its Citizen Information Project. The project is one of several that lead the Government's own Office of the Information Commissioner to warn that there is a danger of the country "sleepwalking" into a mass surveillance "Beware rise of Big Brother state, warns data watchdog", Times Online, 16 August 2004..

See also

External links

Office for National Statistics website
Statistics and Registration Service Bill, Treasury website.
Statistics and Registration Service Bill, Parliament website.
Palgrave Macmillan, official publisher for the Office for National Statistics

References