Committee publication · Correspondence · 3 September 2025 · HC 847
Letter from Sir Robert Chote, Chair, UK Statistics Authority, and Catherine Little CB, Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary on National Statistician Performance, dated 30.7.25
From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Summary
Sir Robert Chote (UK Statistics Authority Chair) and Catherine Little CB (Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary) respond to PACA's questions about National Statistician performance management and the Devereux Review commission. They describe the Permanent Secretary Remuneration Committee process, confirm eleven high-frequency meetings between June 2024 and May 2025 on ONS performance concerns, and state the review was commissioned due to accumulated factors including statistical production issues, staff feedback, and culture perceptions.
Key findings
- National Statistician performance is managed by the Permanent Secretary Remuneration Committee (PSRC), which considers departmental delivery, stakeholder feedback, financial management, and reform contributions before recommending pay awards to the Prime Minister.
- The UKSA Board Chair conducted an end-of-year review on 6 June 2024, gathering feedback from multiple stakeholders, and shared conclusions with the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary for PSRC moderation.
- Between June 2024 and May 2025, the Authority Chair and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary met or spoke eleven times on ONS performance and culture; higher frequency meetings reflect governance practice when organisations have significant concerns.
- The Devereux Review was commissioned jointly due to accumulated factors: statistical production performance issues, staff feedback, and perceptions of organisational culture—not a single trigger event.
- The Authority's Remuneration Committee does not discuss the National Statistician's performance, as this falls outside its published terms of reference.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Simon Hoare MP, Sir Robert Chote, Catherine Little CB, National Statistician, UK Statistics Authority, Cabinet Office, Permanent Secretary Remuneration Committee, Office for National Statistics
Notable line
“There was no single cause which led us jointly to commission an independent review into the performance and culture of the ONS …”
Key Quotes
“PSRC considers all available performance evidence before agreeing its final recommendations for the Prime Minister.”
“Between June 2024 and May 2025, we (the Authority Chair and the Permanent Secretary) spoke or met on eleven occasions, and each of those conversations touched in one way or another on questions of performance or culture of the organisation we were responsible for overseeing.”
“There was no single cause which led us jointly to commission an independent review into the performance and culture of the ONS, but rather an accumulation of factors: some were related to the performance of the organisation on statistical production or on some key programmes, some were related to feedback we had received from staff within the organisation, and some were related to perceptions of the culture of the organisation.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗