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 research.function@statistics.gov.uk.

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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    Why might this be relevant?

    The project discusses the use of administrative data for research and policy making, which is relevant to the question about statistics serving the public good, but it does not fully address the unique aspects of official statistics or how to incorporate public views.

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    The project focuses on linking and analyzing administrative data to shape policy decisions, which aligns with the concept of statistics serving the public good, but it does not fully explore the unique role of official statistics or how to engage the public in this process.

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    Why might this be relevant?

    The project is relevant as it discusses the transformation of public sector data access and usage for policy decisions, which is part of statistics serving the public good, but it does not fully address the unique aspects of official statistics or the incorporation of public views.

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