Appointment of the Chair of UK Statistics Authority

Written evidence submitted by Royal Statistical Society Statistics Users Forum (UKSA 02)

1. SUF is an umbrella organisation for a growing number of groups and networks of users of official statistics and is the means through which the Royal Statistical Society promotes the needs of users, building on the work of the predecessor Statistics User Council.

2. SUF wishes to associate itself with the views expressed in the submission made by the Royal Statistical Society. In particular we agree that one of the highest priority issues for the incoming Chair is how to ensure that greater attention is given to the needs of all users of statistics. We would like assurance that the Chair will be willing and able to exert pressure on the National Statistician and the Government Statistical Service so that the system delivers the service that users need and expect. For statistics to have value, they must be used, and used by the widest possible audience.

3. The Code of Practice for Statistics, developed and published by the UK Statistics Authority, is a significant achievement. It underpins both quality and integrity, and this is strengthened by its statutory footing. Principle 1 of the Code sets out clearly the importance of engaging with all users – not just those in government departments - and understanding their needs. However, it is clear from the assessments of National Statistics carried out to date that user engagement is an area in which many producers fall short. The assessments have usefully identified this as an area for improvement. However, although many in the producer community pay lip service to what these developments imply, we are not convinced that the producer community as a whole has yet acknowledged or embraced the culture shift required.

4. SUF welcomed the UK Statistics Authority Monitoring Report ‘Strengthening User Engagement’, published in June 2010, and supported all its recommendations which chimed well with what the Forum has been trying to achieve over the last few years. However, SUF is concerned that there seems to have been very little follow-up to this report. We hope that the incoming Chair will pursue the recommendations with vigour and we will be happy to do anything we can to support them in this.

5. We are currently working on producing a set of best practice guidelines for user engagement that we hope will be adopted throughout government, based on the experiences of our members. Much of this work arises from our unhappiness with the rash of user consultation exercises on priorities and plans for national statistics that are taking place in response to the Comprehensive Spending Review. SUF has always advocated the need for continuous user-producer dialogue rather than producers relying on one-off consultation exercises, while recognising that both have their place and should, ideally, be complementary.

6. The web provides considerable potential for continuous dialogue between users and producers. With support from the ESRC the RSS is developing a new on-line communications hub to facilitate this. StatsUserNet will be an online user engagement tool using social networking software. It is designed to give users a one stop shop for advice, discussion and information, and allow producers direct access to a large user community. The UK Statistics Authority supported this development through a recommendation in the ‘Strengthening User Engagement’ report and is represented on the Project Board. Heads of profession in government departments have also been supportive, but we hope that the Authority will be able to bring pressure to bear to ensure that this support carries through into the embedding of the web hub into all user engagement activity.

7. While recognising the constraints on public finances and the need to make budgetary cuts, users are concerned that the implications of decisions that affect statistics should be seen in the context of the output of statistics across government as a whole. Otherwise there is real danger of the law of unintended consequences operating. We feel that the UK Statistics Authority is uniquely placed to analyse the consequences of changes in statistical outputs to the statistical system as a whole. The statistical expenditure reports are a useful first step in this analysis.

8. Given the centrality of user engagement to the Code of Practice, and the recommendations of the Authority’s report on Strengthening User Engagement, it could be argued that if SUF had not already existed the Authority would now have to invent it. In recognition of this, the Authority has supported SUF through the secondment of a member of staff over the last 18 months, to a new post of User Engagement Programme Manager. This secondment has made a real difference to the way in which we can support user groups, and indeed reach out beyond the traditional user group structures. The arrangement has just been renewed for a further two years and we hope that it will be possible to put this support onto a long term basis.

April 2011