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(Bloomberg) — One of Britain’s most senior statisticians said she’s frustrated by the long wait to install a new chief who can fix a crisis of confidence around the country’s economic data.
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Penny Young, interim chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said the process to find the next head of the Office for National Statistics has “moved slowly at each stage” — more than a year after its former chief Ian Diamond resigned following a string of errors.
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The UKSA oversees the ONS but the UK government is responsible for the appointment of its new chief. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration has been accused of dithering over a number of issues, including this week’s much-delayed defense spending plan, a criticism that contributed to his imminent departure from Downing Street.
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In the text of a speech due to be delivered later on Thursday, Young said the appointment is “now in its final stages,” yet she warned that the delays had set back the ONS’s progress on key priorities. She said it has been “frustrating to be without a permanent National Statistician for so long.”
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Diamond stepped down on health grounds in May 2025 as the ONS grappled with a collapse in household survey responses that had crippled its key estimates for unemployment and employment. The UKSA has also been without a permanent chair since Robert Chote left last year.
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People familiar with the appointment process said the decision had become gummed up in government amid turmoil in Starmer’s administration. Josh Simons, who was the minister in charge of overseeing the ONS’s recovery, resigned earlier this year as he faced a government investigation into the actions of an influential Labour think-tank he used to head. He later stepped down as an member of Parliament, paving the way for former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster.
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“In my view, this has not affected ONS recovery, but it has slowed progress on system-wide Assembly priorities,” said Young.
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“I accept that we lost momentum in 2025: energy was rightly focused on ONS recovery, and we haven’t been helped by the absence of a permanent National Statistician to drive the system wide priorities,” she said. “But with ONS recovery well underway, the Board has been clear that these priorities must now move forward.”
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The ONS is currently developing a new online-led labor market survey as it tries to improve the accuracy of its statistics. Bloomberg revealed earlier this year that the launch of that survey is likely to be pushed back into next year.
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