Statistics that serve the public good: What does it mean for statistics to serve the public good, and how might this be measured and communicated? What is unique about the way in which official statistics serve the public good compared to other sources of information? How can views from ‘the public’ be brought into this conversation, respecting that there is no single homogenous group and there will be many varied perspectives?
Background
OSR’s vision is that statistics serve the public good, and we propose that an in-depth understanding of what that means will allow us to develop our regulatory work and support the wider statistical and analytical systems. Even though we work with a range of data that is used as evidence, our statutory objective concerns official statistics and so we are interested in learning more about how they specifically serve the public good. We have delved into what the ‘statistics serving the public good’ means through several research projects; our most recent being a public dialogue in collaboration with Administrative Data Research UK, and based on this successful partnership we are optimistic about the benefits of continuing to work with others in this area.
To understand this notion of ‘statistics serving the public good’, it is necessary to understand the public these statistics are endeavouring to serve, and what they value. This is touched upon in the ARI on ‘produced’, where we explore Value in the Code, and the ARI on ‘used’ where we are interested in who is using statistics.
Next steps
If you would like to share evidence or collaborate with us on any of these areas, please contact us at [email protected].
Source
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Valued Office for Statistics Regulations Areas of Research Interest Office for Statistics Regulation
Related UKRI funded projects
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Administrative Data Research Centres 2018
There is great potential for understanding more about our society through better use of data that already exists and by linking different datasets together. Using existing data is not only efficient and cheaper than coll...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: Queen's University Belfast
Why might this be relevant?
The project partially answers the question by discussing the benefits of using existing data for research and policy-making, but does not specifically address the concept of 'statistics serving the public good'.
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ADRC NI 2026-31 Recommissioning
There is great potential for understanding more about our society through better use of data that already exists. Government organisations collect a wealth of information about the entire population throughout their live...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST
Why might this be relevant?
Partially relevant as it focuses on using existing data for research for public good, but does not directly address the unique aspects of official statistics serving the public good.
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Administrative Data Research UK - Welsh Government
ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) is a partnership transforming the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data, to enable better informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives. By linking...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: WELSH GOVERNMENT
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on how statistics serve the public good through data access and policy decisions.