Blog by Jonathan Everett, RSS Head of Policy
It has been another busy few months on the RSS policy and advocacy front. The past three months have been dominated by our work engaging with the UK’s statistical system – July saw the chair of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) resign, and the decision to temporarily split the National Statistician role has meant that the system has been recruiting three new senior leaders while launching a recovery plan for economic statistics. This has been an important area for us to engage with: one of the key aims of the Society is to promote the use of evidence in decision-making, and a well-functioning independent statistical system is absolutely central to that.
Public statistics
We have successfully engaged with the Cabinet Office in their plans for recruiting a new National Statistician. Members of our Public Statistics Advisory Group fed into the development of the job description for the role, and this input was warmly received. Our President is also a member of the Advisory Assessment Panel, which will advise ministers on the appointment of the new chair of UKSA.
We held the first of a planned series of roundtables with Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) – these events are intended to bring the expertise of our membership to bear on some of the pressing statistical challenges facing the system. The first roundtable focused on ONS surveys – read our Honorary Officer for Public Statistics reflections on that event. We are planning further roundtables with ONS and OSR – the next one will be held on 25th November focusing on population statistics in the context of the Census.
Given the amount of political interest in governance of the statistical system at present, we have convened a group of senior members to reflect on how well the governance arrangements have been working and how we might like to see them evolve. We are planning to publish work based on these conversations when the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee completes its inquiry into UKSA.
We have also been working with the wider Government Statistical System (GSS) to think about the skills requirements for future statisticians – and what the RSS and GSS should do to help ensure that they are met. The final report on that work will be published soon.
Our work to map out gaps in UK poverty data is also continuing – since the last update we have held two roundtables with representatives from charities, academia and wider civil society to help us understand the landscape. Read the write-ups of the first roundtable (on data relating to women) and second roundtable (on wealth and assets).
Public understanding
Ahead of our Conference in Edinburgh, we held a public engagement event focusing on AI: this was a successful and engaging event that covered the history of AI and its application in recruitment and the law. Watch the video of the event.
On the topic of the law: a major recent focus of our public understanding priority has involved working with the RSS’s Stats and the Law Section to help improve understanding and use of statistics within the legal system. Light has been shed on systemic issues with the handling of statistical evidence by the Lucy Letby case, and a number of individual RSS members have publicly raised their concerns. This has enabled the RSS to open discussions with a range of organisations across the legal system and secure some significant wins: we have identified parts of the justice system that recognise that they need support in identifying expert statistical witnesses, and we are exploring how the RSS can support them in this; section members have been developing statistical guidance for the police in collaboration with the National Police Chief’s Council; and after a successful pilot session run by RSS members, the Bar Council have expressed interest in collaborating on training to improve understanding among legal professionals. We are especially grateful to the chair of the Section, Amy Wilson, and the members who produced and contributed to the Healthcare Serial Killers report, whose work has continued to be instrumental to our success in this area.
In wider work with our members on stats in the law, and with the pro bono support of a legal firm specialising in industrial injuries, the RSS recently submitted an application to intervene in an appeal to the Supreme Court in a case relating to risk exposure that relied on a number of statistical arguments. The appeal was not granted because it did not raise an arguable point of law, so the Court ruled that it was not a suitable case to consider concerns about the use of statistical evidence. We hope to continue work with the firm on a similar case.
Our Education Policy Advisory Group has finalised the work on its strategy for our public understanding work. We will have two focuses for our work over the next few years. First, engaging with discussions around the school curriculum and assessment – both in the context of maths and statistics as well as in other relevant subjects. We are expecting the outcome of the National Curriculum Review soon, and will be responding to this with our partners across civil society. The second focus is on the public understanding of AI – where we are planning work with policymakers using AI in government, alongside looking at the use of AI in teaching with educators.
AI
The AI Task Force has been developing our strategy for engagement around AI. As our first priority, we have identified that there is a need to focus serious efforts in making the case for the relevance of statistics to AI – as this is not something that is immediately recognised by many of the stakeholders that we have been engaging with. Over the next few months, we will be making a sustained effort to make this case – and I’ll update on progress in the next blog at the start of 2026. Once that is done, we will aim to use an increased profile in the space to emphasise our policy priorities around evaluation and data ethics and governance.