ONS appoints Bank of England data exec as new chief Economics The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has appointed a Bank of England executive as its new director general at a time when the independent body is losing trust over its poor handling of key data. James Benford, who served as the Bank’s chief data officer and oversaw analytics, will join the ONS in early August [...]
Office for National Statistics chief resigns over ‘health issues’ Economics The head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has resigned because “ongoing health issues” mean he could not give the organisation the “full commitment” required to drive it forward. Sir Ian Diamond, who was appointed the UK’s national statistician in 2019, has stepped down with immediate effect, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said in [...]
Stats body aims to publish key jobs data in late 2026 Economics The UK’s official statistics body has set a target of November 2026 for the reform of its flagship Labour Force Survey (LFS), which monitors the UK jobs market. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been dogged by several troubles in data gathering, prompting criticism from the Bank of England as well as an intervention [...]
Probe launched into ONS governance and data quality April 1, 2025 The government has launched an independent investigation into the UK’s beleaguered statistics watchdog to ascertain how its official data and surveys have become so unreliable. The remit of the probe – commissioned by the Cabinet Office and UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) – will span the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) culture, leadership and structure, and [...]
ONS reliability questioned after survey ‘collapsed’ to five respondents March 10, 2025 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is under fire after internal emails exposed a sample size of employment data “collapsed to only five individuals”. According to correspondence obtained by the Financial Times, deputy chief economist Richard Heys cautioned in October 2023 that maintaining the statistics agency’s labour force survey (LFS) had “little and falling merit.” Heys [...]
New labour force survey could be delayed to 2027 amid falling participation December 3, 2024 Since the pandemic, the ONS has struggled with falling response rates to its flagship labour force survey (LFS), which has raised questions over the accuracy of its data.