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The UK’s statistics agency has announced plans to scrap some of its publications on health, crime and the regions of Britain as part of its “recovery” plan to boost the reliability of its core data.
Under pressure over the quality of its data, the Office for National Statistics said it would reduce the number of reports it produces each year by about 10% in 2026 to help it prioritise resources.
Earlier this summer it emerged staff at the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had expressed concerns over the reliability of ONS data ahead of the chancellor Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.
This includes issues with the labour force survey (LFS), the official measure of employment in the UK, which has been beset by problems amid a collapse in response rates. The LFS is also a critical component of data on productivity, which is a measure of economic output per hour of work or employee.
Reeves is widely expected to be handed a sharply downgraded OBR forecast for UK productivity growth at the budget, in a financial blow worth up to £20bn, increasing the likelihood of the chancellor raising taxes.
Economists have said policymakers are “flying blind” amid issues with the LFS caused by low response rates, which the ONS has previously said could take until 2027 to fix.
The statistics agency has been open and transparent about the issues with some statistics and launched a strategic plan to improve the quality of its key datasets as an urgent priority.
In its statement on Wednesday, the ONS said its latest measures would narrow the focus of its publications to support the recovery in the quality of the core economic and social statistics that are key to decision makers.
Alongside launching a new website, it said it would improve the focus of its outputs and produce clearer information. The changes include reducing its commitment to health data and reviewing funding of crime statistics.
Darren Tierney, the permanent secretary at the ONS, said: “Our top priority is restoring the quality of our core statistics, and we are already enacting the key recommendations from Sir Robert Devereux’s review.
“Today’s plans take us one step further, narrowing the focus of our portfolio and reducing the number of publications so we can devote resources to our improvement work, putting quality over quantity and working closely with users to rebuild trust.”
