Public understanding and trust in official statistics examined by Committee

• Watch on Parliament TV: Governance of Statistics
• Inquiry: Governance of Statistics
• Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Background

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee is conducting an inquiry examining the role and performance of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). Created as an independent body in 2008, UKSA has a statutory objective to promote and safeguard official statistics that ‘serve the public good'.

Purpose of the Session

In this session, the Committee will hear from a range of statistics users such as the UK's independent factchecking organisation Full Fact, on how well official statistics meet the needs of users and how well UKSA engages with users, including through user groups.

The Committee will ask whether UKSA provides statistics that serve the public good, whether the public tends to trust national statistics and how UKSA could improve its approach to user engagement. Witnesses include the former Director of Policy of the Office for National Statistics and the Chair of the Statistics Users Forum.

In the second panel, the Committee will hear from the Director of the Migration Unit at University College London and the Chief Executive of Local Trust to examine the specific issues of migration statistics and the value of statistics to local communities.

Witnesses

Tuesday 5 March 2019, Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Panel One: 10am

• Paul Allin, Chair, Statistics Users Forum
• Mike Hughes, formerly Director of Policy, Office for National Statistics
• Will Moy, Director, Full Fact

Panel Two: 11am

• Professor John Salt, Migration Research Unit, University College London
• Matt Leach, Chief Executive, Local Trust

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

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