Former national statistician Prof Sir Ian Diamond has rebuffed the suggestion that he is solely responsible for the Office for National Statistics’ failings.
Diamond stepped down as national statistician in May for health reasons – just a month after the Cabinet Office asked Sir Robert Devereux to conduct a review into the ONS amid concerns about its performance and culture.
Devereux’s review, published in late June, found “deep seated” issues at ONS and recommended splitting the national statistician role in two and creating a new permanent secretary role to handle operations – which the government has implemented.
Appearing before MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Diamond was asked by the committee’s chair, Simon Hoare: “In the still watch of the night, do you ever feel that you’ve been scapegoated on this?”
Responding, Diamond said: “I don't sleep a lot at the moment I'll tell you that. And I haven't slept a lot for a long time.”
He added: “Do I believe that on my own I have caused the demise of the reputation of ONS? No I don’t. Let me absolutely clear about that.
“Some of those errors that we have been finding could have been there for 10 years, and we are now finding them. They haven’t changed economic history, but at the same time I would much rather look you in the eye and say, 'Here is a problem; we have found it and it has been sorted', than brush it under the carpet. That is not going to happen on my watch.”
In a previous PACAC session earlier this summer, Hoare painted Diamond as reminiscent of a Bond villain in his approach.
“Ian Diamond appears to have run this organisation [...] as a hybrid of a Medici prince and Blofeld," Hoare said. “He seemed unwilling or uninterested in anything anyone had to say, he managed to pull the wool over the eyes of ministers, the board – everything was hunky-dory, innovation was going to be the great salvation to all of our prayers.
“I'm now mixing my metaphors horribly, but when the emperor was found to be naked and not clothed in regal purple, ill health meant that he had to leave the ONS PDQ.”
On Tuesday, Diamond did not express frustration with the chair, however. On the contrary, near the end of the session, when asked if the government had treated him fairly, he replied: “I believe I have been treated fairly by this committee.”
At the beginning of the session, Diamond was asked if the ONS had “gone to hell in a handcart” during his time leading the organisation.
Diamond, who took on the national statistician role in 2019, said: “I fully recognise that the reputation of the ONS has had a major kick, and I feel really sorry for the many thousands of really dedicated public servants who work there who are doing great things. Do I believe that the organisation has to use your words, if I may, ‘gone to hell in a handcart?’ I don’t believe that. Do I believe there are serious challenges? Yes, I do.
“I believe that those serious challenges have been there for some time, and by some time I mean very much into the last decade.”
He said some of the key reasons for these challenges included a failure over many years to update survey designs, and consultants contributing to work without properly documenting what they were doing, which led to errors.
Diamond also said there was “no question” that the government had asked the ONS to do too much with the resources it was allocated.
He added: “I completely accept, and I have been quite open that I regret and I am very sorry about, the issues around the Labour Force [Survey], but this is driving an enormous economy and the amounts of money are really quite small.”
Diamond also described how HM Treasury officials had earlier this year told him to focus only on economic statistics.
“The Treasury is doing the funding, and on many occasions the Treasury said, 'All we want is economic statistics',” Diamond said.
“I was explicitly told in April this year, if anyone's asking you to do anything other than economic statistics, come back and see us and we'll have a word with them.”
Diamond said he disagreed with this approach and that a national statistics institute “should be doing more”.
“If you are in the Home Office, you want really good crime statistics. I believe those statistics need to be done, that survey needs to be transformed, there needs to be much better data on violence against women and girls. Much needs to be done. We were being asked by the Department for Work and Pensions to do extra work. The Department of Health was asking us to do more.
“You have to be able to say no, and we were able to say no – do not get me wrong – but we are a national statistics institute and in my opinion that is different from an economic statistics institute.”
During the session, Diamond also responded to criticism of the culture he oversaw as national statistician at the ONS, saying he “tried very much to build much more of an inclusive culture”.
Diamond said he had come into the role to improve the quality of statistics and tried to “de-factionalise” the ONS because he felt it was siloed.
“Did I succeed? I tried; maybe I failed. I had a mantra that I used a lot, which was 'One ONS', and people did start working together better which is important,” he added.
He also said he felt the HR team has got a "bad press" over its handling of hybrid working. Officials who are members of the PCS union have taken action since May 2024 in a dispute over office-attendance rules.
"I felt that the HR team put an enormous amount of effort into meeting individually with colleagues to look at their personal circumstances and work out the best solution," Diamond said.
Diamond also gave his view on structural issues at the ONS. He said he believes there should be a Cabinet Office observer on the board to provide stronger scrutiny from the parent department.
He also said he now believes it is not a good idea that the UK Statistics Authority chair both heads the board and sits on the regulation committee.
Diamond added that he believes the national statistician "should ideally be the permanent secretary”, supported by a director general of operations. But he agreed that if you cannot find someone who can do both the statistician and operational aspect of the role, “then you need to do something of the sort that is proposed at the moment”.