The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) review of the Annual Business Survey (ABS) recommended the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish a plan, by the end of October, setting out how it would meet the improvements set out within the report.

Specifically, the OSR report asked ONS to:

"Publish a plan, which includes specific actions, deliverables and a timetable by the end of October 2021, that explains how it will address the improvements identified in the report."

This is our update on plans to address the OSR recommendations

Requirements 1 and 2 focus on the need to invest, develop and improve the ONS structural economic statistics

A bid has been included in the recent Spending Review (SR) for a full redevelopment of the ABS. This will enable the ABS to remain relevant and responsive to user needs and contribute more robust sub-national information.

Should funding become available we will seek feedback from internal and external users, such as National Accounts and government departments, to ensure that future data requirements are fully considered. We will then publish a timeline of planned work with our next update to OSR in early 2022.

Regardless of future funding, we have carried out initial exploratory work by undertaking a detailed mapping of the current ABS processing system, and a discovery project is being initiated to further develop ideas on improving the ABS both in the short and long term. We are currently investigating multiple channels for data collection, from moving surveys online to using administrative data to replace or complement survey data. This will improve data quality and timeliness and is aligned to ONS aims for future sustainability.

Requirement 3 focuses on user engagement both inside and outside of government, to ensure that as far as possible its annual business statistics are providing public value

User engagement is a key priority. Meetings are held with other government departments (OGDs) and the ABS team on a regular basis; these OGDs include the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Department for International Trade (DIT), Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and the devolved administrations. We also regularly communicate with internal users of data, such as National Accounts, through joint working groups and the ABS management board. Membership of the ABS management board includes key internal stakeholders, however, there are plans to extend membership to other internal users of ABS data.

As well as the above, we aim to widen our engagement with other external users. A user event was held in March 2019 with OGDs, researchers and academics, and a follow up was planned for March 2020. However, this was cancelled because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Following on from a joint ONS and UK Data Service event that was held in September 2021 there are plans to repeat this in the early part of 2022.

We communicate with a wide range of users via a dedicated mailbox, and we will use this facility to run a user consultation in 2022. Feedback from users will be captured and used to inform any future development of the ABS.

We will reflect on the Government Statistical Service User Engagement Strategy for Statistics to assist with extended user engagement and share content on the StatsUserNet portal. There are also plans to coordinate work with the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) regarding future research into data quality in annual business statistics.

Requirement 4 asks ONS to provide clearer indications of the fitness for purpose of the ABS statistics and their strengths and limitations with respect to various potential uses

As part of this requirement, ONS needs to understand and communicate to users the influence of Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) data quality issues on ABS estimates, to ensure that users are well placed to understand the capability and usability of ABS estimates.

Quality of the IDBR was highlighted in the OSR assessment of Business Demography (PDF, 340KB). The ABS team will continue to work with the IDBR team to understand the current data quality issues and how these affect ABS data. We will add commentary to the ABS technical report regarding the strengths and limitations of ABS estimates as necessary and continue to publish quality measures alongside our data releases.

We will continue to feed into discussions on the development of the new Statistical Business Register (SBR), considering feedback received from users to inform requirements.

Requirement 5 relates to the UK Data Service (UKDS)

ABS microdata is provided to the ONS Secure Research Service (SRS) within a week of the ABS estimates being published for approved researchers to apply to use. The SRS team are currently reviewing their process for researchers gaining approved researcher status and reviewing project applications to ensure these are as streamlined as possible.

Data are provided to the UKDS via the SRS. While access to the UKDS is outside of ONS responsibility, the SRS team and UK Statistics Authority data governance team met with the UKDS in September to review current access arrangements and make improvements to the process.

A joint ONS and UKDS event for microdata users was held in September 2021 which included a specific session on how users can obtain access to data.

Finally, we will consider the opportunities that the new integrated data system will bring to improve the accessibility of data to our users.