Introduction
A key component of the corporate management strategy for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the management of risk. As for any organisation, public or private, the work of ONS is subject to risk. This includes risk in meeting financial objectives, risk in meeting business objectives, and risks to the public and to employees, which might be incurred in trying to meet business objectives. This paper summarises how ONS manages risks that might materially affect the public, setting out the basis used to reach decisions in these areas.
These pages have three aims:
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to document current practice for corporate use, in order to facilitate use of the procedures across the organisation
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to inform interested parties of the procedures currently in place
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to provide a basis for ongoing improvement of current practice
While an extensive risk management strategy is in place across ONS, it is intended to review and improve this strategy, with the aim of instituting a more structured and thorough approach across the organisation, and in line with the more formal project management approaches currently being undertaken. This is an element of the overall risk management strategy for ONS and will be updated to reflect improved approaches as these are developed and implemented.
The first section of the paper summarises the key elements of the ONS risk management strategy. This is followed by a summary of the main areas of risk to the public from ONS activities. The pages then provide more specific types of risk for each of these areas and sets out the method of risk management currently in place for each. In particular, the processes for assessing the likelihood and impact of the risk, including the ONS criteria and processes used to determine the need for and nature of a response, are provided. Finally, the mechanisms by which the effectiveness of risk management strategies are evaluated, is provided.
