UK Statistics Assembly

Nicola Fulton is the deputy head of external affairs for the Office for National Statistics. 

After giving a brief overview of the UK statistical system, she talked about the forthcoming UK Statistics Assembly. This followed a recommendation in the recent Lievesley Review into the UK Statistics Authority. The Assembly will take place in January and will bring together users and producers of data and statistics to come together and discuss (and advise on) priorities, gaps and user needs of the UK statistics system.

You can still register to attend the Assembly, which takes place (in London and online) on 22 January 2025. One of Nicola’s ONS colleagues also shared a link to a series of webinars from the ONS on ‘bringing data to life’.

See Nicola's slides and highlights from her presentation here.

We also ask our speakers – if they have time! – to answer a standard set of questions. Here are Nicola’s answers:

• Can you summarise your project in a few sentences? The Assembly is an opportunity to bring together a broad range of participants for a day to discuss user needs, data gaps, and the challenges and opportunities confronting the statistics ecosystem.

• What problem are you trying to solve? It'll help inform strategy and statistic producers planning across the statistics and data ecosystem.

• What difference will it make to citizens? Official statistics and data provide vital insights that help citizens, businesses, policymakers and civil society plan for the future, make decisions and understand our society and economy better. So it is important these sectors all have a voice and can advise on what’s needed.

• How will you know when it’s succeeded? Success will include:

  • High and diverse representation at the Assembly from across sectors - public, private, charity, and regions of the UK, and the types of participants who we hear from (ie policymakers, service planners, community and business representatives, as well as data analysts, statisticians, economists and demographers taking part).

  • The event, the advisory report and actions are cross-cutting and relatable across statistical system.

  • Learnings from the Assembly and its process can inform and help make future assemblies and engagement more impactful.

• What are the main hurdles? We’re aiming for broad representation at the Assembly from all sectors and regions of the UK. This is the first time a Statistics Assembly has been held, so we're building and learning as we go.

If you could change one thing about data in government, what would it be? A cross govt data change from me rather than ONS would be for ongoing collaboration across government and agencies around efforts to build public trust in the use of data for public good.