An independent review of performance and culture at the Office for National Statistics has found “deep seated issues” that require a restructuring of the organisation’s top leadership.
The exercise, conducted by former Department for Transport and Department for Work and Pensions permanent secretary Sir Robert Devereux, has called for the separation of the role of national statistician and permanent secretary of ONS to drive change.
Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little and UK Statistics Authority chair Sir Robert Chote have accepted the recommendation. They pledged to start the recruitment process for a perm sec with “a track record of running a complex operational business” shortly.
Little and Chote appointed Devereux to lead a rapid review in April following multiple concerns about the quality of ONS survey data – including plummeting response rates to the Labour Force Survey and issues with trade statistics and the Producer Price Index.
His review, published yesterday, argues that most of the problems with core economic statistics are “the consequence of ONS’s own performance", with organisational cultural issues at the heart of the problem.
Devereux said that the ONS had a “commendable interest” in new approaches to statistics and ensuring the relevance of its activities to wider political debate. But he said this had resulted in “de-prioritising the less exciting, but nonetheless crucial, task of delivering core economic statistics of sufficient quality to guide decision making”.
The ex-perm sec said there had been an opportunity cost in ONS securing additional funds for flagship programmes, like the Integrated Data Service, and using those funds to deploy scarce human expertise. “That opportunity cost was both the constraint on organisational bandwidth, and the restricted funding for core economic production teams," he said.
Devereux said “too many” people he talked to for the review had described a “divergence” between what they were asked to do and the resources they were allocated to deliver it.
He said the economic-statistics failures that had occurred should not be thought of as isolated issues, “but rather as the almost inevitable consequence of the choices made (and not made) at the top of ONS, over several years”.
Devereux said those choices included what work the ONS should prioritise in seeking funds at the 2021 Spending Review.
He said the ONS had established values to be “radical” and “ambitious” – and that its performance during the Covid-19 pandemic had shown how such values could “drive extraordinary behaviour and results”.
“Unfortunately, the lesson learned seems to have been ‘all things are possible', without the nuance that this is typically only true when there is an overwhelming emergency, which understandably de-prioritises many other activities.” he said.
Praise for Ian Diamond
Nevertheless, Devereux made a point of commending former national statistician and ONS perm sec Prof Sir Ian Diamond for his work during the pandemic.
“The country was fortunate that he was at the helm of the ONS during the pandemic, during which he catalysed extraordinary work to deliver the Covid infection survey, and a range of behavioural data to help manage the pandemic," Devereux said.
Diamond stepped down from his job on health grounds last month. Emma Rourke is now acting national statistician and ONS perm sec.
Devereux said the “deep-seated issues” at ONS mean a new leadership structure is required – although he suggests this could be a temporary change.
“Most of the problems with core statistics result from inadequacies in the way ONS has made decisions, planned and budgeted, and managed risks,” he said.
Devereux said those risks would be “best be addressed by temporarily separating the role of national statistician from the role of ONS permanent secretary, appointing to the latter someone with a track record of leading an operational business, indeed of ‘turning round’ such an organisation”.
He added: “I suggest temporary separation since, with the more effort to develop evident talent within the Government Statistical Service, I think it might well be possible to re-combine the roles in due course, once the organisation’s core business is back on a more stable footing.”
Devereux said he imagined the revised stand-alone role of national statistician would have similarities to the role of chief medical officer because of its focus on providing advice to government and professional leadership.
Pay and remote-working also issues
Elsewhere in his report Devereux noted the ongoing industrial action at ONS over post-pandemic in-office working. Members of the PCS union are currently working to rule over the official requirement for 40% office attendance.
Devereux said the dispute needed to be “resolved quickly”, with “some recognition of the past poor handling” of the situation on the part of management but a “wider recognition of the benefits of teams spending time together in one place”.
His report also acknowledges recruitment and retention problems faced by the ONS because of the fact that its locations are mainly outside of major cities and pay for analysts that is “not comparable with other departments”.
In addition to accepting Devereux’s recommendation for the national statistician and ONS perm sec role to be separated, Little and Chote confirmed that funds and staffing at the organisation would be reallocated as part of an in-house recovery strategy.
The strategy, Restoring confidence, improving quality: the plan for ONS economic statistics, was commissioned by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April and published alongside the Devereux review.
The plan includes the investment of a further £10m – including around 150 skilled staff – into core economic and population statistics at ONS.
Acting national statistician Rourke said the investment would “build over this financial year and into early 2026-to-2027 by re-prioritising our original business plan, including rapidly deploying skilled people to the work from other areas of the office”.
Steve Thomas, deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, said the Devereux report confirmed that there had been “serious and ongoing failings” in the way the ONS was managed in recent years.
"We welcome the report’s recognition that the return to the office was poorly handled and agree that rebuilding trust will require meaningful acknowledgement of past mistakes,” he said.
“Prospect remains committed to helping to resolve workplace issues so that industrial disputes can be avoided, but this will require ONS leadership to engage constructively with union and staff concerns and to get back round the table with us and deal with the fundamental issues.”
Thomas said the systemic issues around pay, performance management, and the lack of investment in skills at the organisation were not new problems.
“We urge the ONS and its sponsoring department to treat them with the seriousness they deserve,” he said.