Directorates

Surveys and Administrative Sources Directorate (SASD)

The Surveys and Administrative Sources Directorate (usually referred to as "Sources") brings together all those parts of the ONS involved in the survey taking and reporting parts of the statistical business. The key objective of Sources is to produce statistical outputs from its surveys and administrative sources to agreed timetables, quality standards and cost. It is also responsible for a programme of development work on existing surveys which may arise from quality reviews, new EU regulations or enhancements agreed with customers.

Economic, Labour and Social Analysis Directorate (ELS)

The Economc, Labour and Social Analysis Directorate's work is organised around reporting and analysing major social and economic issues across a range of themes:

  • health 

  • public service output and productivity

  • equalities

  • labour market

  • societal wellbeing

  • children and young people

  • wealth and income distribution, including pensions

ELS also aims to provide a strengthened service to customers, within the public and private sectors, in the provision of information regarding the UK economy, society and public services. It does this by:

  • providing high quality, multi-source reporting and analysis

  • providing analysis of high profile topics to meet and influence policy agendas

  • regular monthly monitoring of the labour market

  • providing a cross-disciplinary home of choice for professional analysts

  • working in partnership with customers and stakeholders to meet their needs

  • improving the quality and accessibility of our statistical outputs

  • providing and promoting secure use and storage of micro-data in modernised systems

Population, Health and Regional Analysis Directorate (PHR)

Population, Health and Regional Analysis Directorate’s mission is "to be the authoritative, trusted provider of high quality data, statistics and analyses, at national and local level, on the number, distribution and health of the population as well as on the social and economic conditions affecting people in, local areas".

Our statistics are used by policy makers to inform major decisions, for example about allocating funding to local authorities, decisions about health policy, and for the allocation of European funding. Accurate population statistics are also essential to providing denominators for other key ONS outputs such as the National Accounts.

PHR outputs are delivered partly through a comprehensive range of publications such as 

  • Population Trends

  • Regional Trends

  • Health Statistics Quarterly

  • Mid-Year Population Estimates

  • National and Sub-National Population Projections

Analysis of a wide range of topics at regional, local and neighbourhood level is also delivered through the network of Regional Statisticians (who are ONS staff but are based at Regional Development Agencies across the country), and through the Neighbourhood Statistics Service (NeSS).

Census Directorate

Census Directorate is responsible for the planning and development of the processes required to conduct a national census and also for the production of statistical outputs.

The planned date for the next census in England and Wales is 27 March 2011. A census has been held in England and Wales every 10 years since 1801, with the exception of 1941. It is a count of all people and households and is the most complete source of information about the population that exists.

Census data are used by central and local government, health authorities, businesses and other organisations to target resources and to plan housing, education, health and transport services.

A rehearsal will take place on 11 October 2009 in approximately 110,000 households within Lancaster, Newham and Ynys Mon – Isle of Anglesey. This will test the processes and operational systems required for the Census in 2011. It will enable ONS to see how well people understand the proposed questions and how well questionnaire delivery, collection and processing arrangements work.

Information Management Directorate (IMD)

ONS is an information and knowledge business relying heavily on its Information Technology (IT) capability. All ONS operations, from the collection of statistics and analysis of statistics to the dissemination of statistical outputs, depend on IT. Achieving the best possible delivery of statistics depends on modern, coordinated and well structured IT systems so that government, economists, planners, academics, local authorities, health and education

authorities, businesses and citizens at home and overseas can rely and trust the information we provide.

The Information Management Directorate (IMD) is responsible for the design, deployment and management of IT solutions at ONS.

Corporate Services Directorate

Corporate Services takes the lead in key areas of ONS’s business by providing support, guidance and expertise to ONS staff, relating to financial management, accounting, procurement, human resources, enterprise software systems, learning & development, strategic reporting & delivery, risk management and property & facility management services. The Directorate also interface with HM Treasury and UK Statistics Authority and consults with Trade Unions.

Methodology Directorate

Methodology Directorate provides the technical foundation for producing and analysing official statistics, and the methodological support for improving ONS surveys. As a result, National Statistics are built on a solid foundation of reliable innovative methodologies that command respect worldwide. The directorate has a quality assurance role in reviewing new methodology, a quality measurement role in assessing current methodology, and a quality improvement role in suggesting new approaches. Their mission is to reinforce the quality of National Statistics by leading in the development of survey and statistical methods and expert advice.