Main areas of risk to the public

This page focuses on the management approach to risk in those areas where the Office for National Statistics (ONS) activities might materially affect the public. The main areas of such activity are summarised below:

  • ONS must be able to guarantee the confidentiality of all data collected from individuals and organisations for statistical purposes

  • registration of births, marriages and deaths is fundamental to the civil status of individuals, and affects their access to services. ONS ensures the recording of key life events - birth, death, marriage, adoption and stillbirth - of individuals. Locally-based Registration Officers (who are not ONS employees) are responsible for the initial collection of the data and ONS maintains the central record. ONS must ensure that information from those records is accurate and secure from unlawful access

  • ONS maintains and administers the National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR). This provides Health Authorities with information on patients registered for primary health care. Disclosure of information must be made only to those entitled to the information

  • ONS key economic and social statistics, for example National Accounts, RPI, the ILO and claimant unemployment rates, have a direct effect on social and economic conditions through their potential to move markets and through their use in social and economic policy. Some statistics, for example the RPI, also affect individuals and businesses directly through their inclusion in statutes and contract clauses. Others affect communities through the use of the statistics in the distribution of funding. Some (GNI, regional accounts) have a direct effect on EU contributions and funding. ONS must guarantee the reliability of its statistics, ensure they are of high quality and integrity, and provided in a timely way

  • because of their potential to move markets, pre-publication access to key statistical series by some market players would severely disadvantage others, and the pre-publication leakage of market sensitive information would have a substantial impact on the public and pose a risk for key statistics