Following our
introductory letters to new UK ministers after July’s UK general election, we have now followed up with detailed briefings focusing on the three pillars of our
Statistics in Action manifesto:
We have written to the Treasury, emphasising the need for increased use of granular inflation measures, as well as the need for policy proposals to be assessed beyond just their impact on economic growth.
On balancing AI innovation and regulation, our briefing for the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology focuses on our campaign for more investment in open source. We also call for the establishment of a dedicated unit to develop new evaluation methodologies as well as a public register of cases where a complex AI tool is used. In a further briefing for the Secretary of State for Science, we emphasise the importance of data infrastructure and our interest in how the government’s proposed National Data Library might support this.
Our briefing on improving public understanding of statistics for the Department for Education covers how the problem of a lack of qualified maths teachers can be solved, as well as how the teaching of statistics and data can be reinvigorated so that pupils are career ready.
We have also written to the Cabinet Office about strengthening the role of the UK Statistics Authority in combating misinformation, further stressing the need for an action plan on better data sharing between government departments to improve service delivery. Additionally, we recommend building on the success of the Covid dashboard by creating similar dashboards in key areas of societal interest to bolster transparency.
You can read the letters on our policy documents page.