Office for National Statistics

Office for National Statistics
National Statistician	Vacant
Type	Regulator (run by administrators)
Formed	1996
Run by	UKOGB administrators
Publishes	Economic and social statistics
Website	ons.ukogb.co.uk
Headquarters	Government Buildings, Cardiff Road, Newport, NP10 8XG

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the United Kingdom's national statistics body. In UKOGB it is run by the server's administrators, and it publishes the official figures that show how the country is doing: the economy, such as growth, inflation, unemployment and wages, and society, such as crime, migration and public services.

History

The ONS was formed in 1996 by merging the Central Statistical Office with the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. It is independent of ministers, so that the government cannot change the figures to suit itself.

How the statistics are made

Each release is worked out from what actually happens in UKOGB. Every Act given Royal Assent since the last release is weighed for its likely effect, so a law that raises pay or cuts crime moves the figures in the direction it should, and a badly judged law can make them worse. The model also takes in activity at the banks, on the London Stock Exchange, in funds and in gilts, and the level of Bank Rate set by the Bank of England.

Each figure can only move by a limited amount at a time, so the economy changes gradually rather than lurching. Every release comes with a commentary explaining what changed and why.

Publications

Releases are published on the website at ons.ukogb.co.uk and announced in the ONS statistics channel. Ministers and the Opposition often quote them in debates in the House of Commons, and the government is judged on them at election time.

Positions

In UKOGB the Office for National Statistics is run by members who hold its posts on the website. Its head is the National Statistician, who can edit the organisation's page, appoint people to its other roles and speak for it in public. The current holders are shown in the box on this page and on the organisation's page on the website, and each post brings its own Discord roles and website permissions.

• National Statistician (head)