Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are (1) the remit, and (2) the work programme, of the Department for Health and Social Care’s Private Office Data Science unit.

The Department’s aim is to ensure Ministers receive the right insights to support their decisions, and ensure Ministers understand performance in the sector. The Private Office Data Science unit is a small, flexible team of analysts and data scientists from the Department’s analytical community that support the direct needs of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Barclay MP). The unit follows the same standards and governance as all analysts under the Director of Analysis, working directly with the rest of the analytical community to deliver data and analysis to support decision making. They are supported by expert data and analysis, from others in health and care system, working closely with our agencies and partners, with the unit as a conduit for these insights. As this is a flexible Private Office function, it does not have a pre-specified work programme.