Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure access to accurate and up-to-date statistics, following reports of delays and mistakes in releases of data from the Office for National Statistics.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

The Lord Taylor of Warwick

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

31 March 2025

Dear Lord Taylor,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what steps have been taken to ensure access to accurate and up-to-date statistics, following reports of delays and mistakes in releases of data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL6081).

In recent months, as part of routine quality assurance, the ONS identified issues with some of our statistical outputs, resulting in a small number of publications being delayed. Prioritising quality in our statistics is at the forefront of what we do. As such, we are consistently improving systems, investing in quality assurance, and undertaking vital transformation programmes. Further steps to ensure quality in our statistics will be communicated in our 2025/26 Strategic Business Plan. In early April, we will also be publishing our new survey strategy. This will build upon our existing surveys recovery plan, and will chart the pathway to a robust, sustainable survey system that can deliver the critical data required by Government and other key stakeholders.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond