Quality Assurance Review Programme for National Statistics

Background
 
A key component of the framework for assuring the quality of National Statistics is: “a programme of thorough reviews of key outputs, at least every five years, with the involvement of methodologists and outside expertise, as appropriate”;
The attached Annex sets out an initial proposal for a programme of quality reviews for key areas of National Statistics. It is an important way of ensuring that National Statistics and other official statistics are fit for purpose and that we are continuing to improve the quality and value of these outputs. The reviews will also help to provide assurance to the Statistics Commission that this is being done.
 
Theme Working Groups have divided the outputs of their theme into suitable ‘chunks’ (areas for review). The Groups also identified early candidates for review and prepared a provisional 5-year programme. In devising suitable ‘chunks’ of outputs, the Theme Working Groups looked to build reviews around:
 
a. Outputs that are compilations of aggregate statistics from multiple sources;
 
b. Outputs of survey sources: these may be grouped where appropriate; or
 
c. Outputs compiled from administrative sources and registers.
 
In drawing up review schedules, the Theme Working Groups made an initial estimate of relative priorities based on their assessment of the balance between the following main dependencies (in no particular order):

• resource availability; to tie in with already planned internal reviews; 
• producer concerns;
• changes to methodology; 
• user concerns; and 
• new opportunities (e.g. technology changes).
   

As such, they would welcome feedback on their initial assessment of relative priorities, if possible via the theme email address shown in each chapter.

Cross-cutting reviews
 
In addition to the output- or theme-based reviews shown in the schedule below, there will additionally be a programme of crosscutting reviews initiated. These may be limited to particular fields of statistics (e.g. gender disaggregation of social statistics outputs) or may be methodology-based (e.g. use of seasonal adjustment techniques across National Statistics).
 
At present, only one such review has been initiated, and it is a major long-term review programme in itself, consisting of a number of substantive review projects. This review will examine the availability of official statistics to help monitor the ‘inequality agenda’. As such, it will look at the availability of statistics disaggregated by gender, ethnic background, age and disability. Given the size of this programme, it is expected that the first project will look at disaggregation by gender with the others being undertaken afterwards.  The precise scope of the first review is still to be determined but the initial expectation is that it will encompass:

• an identification of which National Statistics (in summary form) are disaggregated by gender, distinguishing  between data collection and dissemination;
• similarly, identifying which statistics are not gender-disaggregated;
• an exploration of the demand for: 
  (i) existing National Statistics which are not currently gender- disaggregated
  (ii) (gender-disaggregated) statistics on aspects of women’s and men’s lives which are not currently collected - kin to a “gaps” exercise; and 
• an identification of the barriers to meeting the demand for (i) and (ii) above.
   

The main output should be a publishable report which should include: 

• an up-to-date list of gender-disaggregated series across the GSS;
• a list of user demands, with an assessment of their feasibility, plus overall recommendations, to feed back into the National Statistics planning process.

It is hoped that the review will include representation from across National Statistics (to represent both social and economic issues), and beyond (including the Gender Statistics User Group, the Women’s Unit and the Equal Opportunities Commission). 

• Quality Assurance Review Programme
• Quality Assurance Template