The RSS is looking for members who are interested in joining our Public Statistics Advisory Group (PSAG).
PSAG is a group of RSS members who support our Honorary Officer for Public Statistics (David Caplan, from next year) in leading the Society’s work to engage with UK’s statistical system.
PSAG advocates for a ‘public statistics’ approach to government statistics. This means looking at how government can capitalise on the increasing amounts of data available and looking beyond official statistics to help answer society’s most important questions. We also focus on user needs: aiming to ensure that the public and civil society, as well as government, have access to relevant and reliable statistics.
This is a key time for official statistics–there have been a series of reviews over the past year, and we are engaging with the Office for National Statistics and government more widely to help them respond effectively. In the past year, the group has had substantial impact through feeding into our responses to the Covid Inquiry alongside these reviews, as well as informing our engagement with senior stakeholders across the system. This is an opportunity to meaningfully shape our work on this vital area at a time when there is a great deal of focus on the functioning of the statistical system.
We have a number of vacancies for the group in 2026 that we are looking to fill. We would like to build a group that has representation from different professional backgrounds (public sector, industry and academia) and covers a range of expertise in different types of statistics (eg, health, economic, population, small area, labour market etc).
If you would like to join PSAG, please complete this short form by noon on Monday 12 January 2026.
If you have any questions, please email policy@rss.org.uk.