System Overview
The UK statistical system has five essential features which distinguish it from many others around the world.
Centralisation
The UK system has elements of both centralisation and decentralisation. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is at the centre of the system as it is the UK's largest statistical producer. The ONS is the UK's National Statistical Institute (NSI) and is the 'head office' of the Government Statistical Service (GSS).
The GSS is an umbrella body. It binds together most of the distinct government organisations and employees in the UK who are responsible for producing official statistics. This community is managed by a network of Heads of Profession for Statistics (HoPs) in each department, who are professionally accountable to the National Statistician as the Head of the GSS. ONS sets statistical policy and professional standards for the GSS, co-ordinates statistical production across the UK system, and itself produces many of the UK's key economic and social statistics.
Decentralisation
The UK system is also highly decentralised. More than 80 per cent of all professional statisticians in the GSS work beyond the ONS, often alongside policy colleagues, in the 38 government departments affiliated to the GSS. And about four-fifths of all official statistics that have been designated as 'National Statistics' (see below) are produced by statisticians working beyond ONS in government departments.
Devolution
Under the devolution settlement, responsibility for the production of statistics relating to Scotland and Wales passed to the respective devolved administration - but only for areas for which they had devolved policy responsibility. This requires additional governance mechanisms to ensure an appropriate balance between the delivery of coherent and comparable statistics across the UK, while simultaneously ensuring the availability of statistics which reflect local circumstances, and meet local needs. The arrangements for ensuring coherence between statistics produced by the UK Government and statistics produced by the three devolved administations are set out in the 'Statistics Concordat' which was agreed between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in 2001.
Globalisation
The UK joined the European Union in 1973 and, like other European NSIs, has been a major partner in the European Statistical System (ESS). As Britain is a leading member of the Commonwealth, the GSS is also a major player in the international statistical arena beyond Europe. The long-standing provision of technical assistance to the statistical offices of developing countries and, more recently, to the EU's new member states, forms a major part in the work of the Department for International Development's statistical division.
The 'National Statistics' system
The 'Framework for National Statistics', published in June 2000, introduced the quality mark 'National Statistics'. The aim of the Framework was to enhance public trust and confidence in official statistics by making the UK statistical system more independent. It launched a number of major innovations which, in one form or another, have largely been retained following the coming into force of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These included the post of National Statistician and the adoption of a code of practice.
For a timeline of the key dates and events which have shaped the UK statistical system, please see related link 'History'.
The full timeline of events is also available to download.
For background information on the UK statistical system, please see related link 'Legislative background'.
