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.
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.
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
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
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'.
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
The project focuses on how statistics serve the public good through data access and policy decisions.
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: DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
The project addresses data access and policy relevance, partially related to statistics serving the public good.