Coherence of statistics

Statisticians working in this topic area concentrate on improving the coherence and availability of Adult Social Care (ASC) statistics.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the UK Health Statistics Steering Group (UKHSSG) Adult Social Care theme group. The group is made up of members from:

• the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC)
• the Department of Health Northern Ireland
• the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• Scottish Government
• Welsh Government

You can contact the UKHSSG adult social care theme group by emailing GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025, the group:

• refreshed their Terms of Reference, officially becoming the UKHSSG theme group for adult social care
• provided a briefing on adult social care data across the UK at the June 2024 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) UK Evidence and Analysis Steering Board meeting — this briefing covered the differences and gaps in the data, as well as the opportunities they represent
• presented at a webinar on adult social care statistics organised by the Health Statistics User Group and the Royal Statistical Society on 11 July 2024 — colleagues from across the UK presented on different projects related to adult social care statistics and the webinar aimed to provide insight into current developments on the topic
• held early discussions about sharing learning from new person level datasets and waiting times metrics in development in England and Wales

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year, the group has shared organograms, including explanations of relevant central government bodies to enable quicker information sharing between nations.

During the rest of the year, the group plans to:

• complete sharing of organograms across nations
• continue to share learning from new person level datasets and waiting times metrics in development in England and Wales — the aim of this is to align methodologies where possible, and explain differences where this is not possible

Further information

Read more about adult social care statistics.

Read more about health and care statistics.

Statisticians working in this topic area concentrate on improving the coherence of education statistics across the UK.

Please note that education was identified as a new priority coherence topic for this year. This means that information about coherence achievements for the previous year of April 2024 to March 2025 is not included.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the Department for Education (DfE), in partnership with the Devolved Governments and the GSS children and education theme group.

You can contact the teams working in this topic area by emailing InternationalEvidence.statistics@education.gov.uk.

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year, DfE has completed a review of available data and publications across the UK to create a plan for improving the official statistics on education and training for the UK.

During the rest of the year, the plan is to conduct user engagement activities around the proposed changes to the official statistics publication. The aim is to adapt the publication to meet user needs and improve signposting to existing statistics across the UK. The next publication will be available in November 2025 and will include proposals for change.

Further information

You can find more information about this topic area by looking at the official statistics on education and training for the UK.

Teams working in this topic area concentrate on improving the accessibility, breadth, and quality of UK statistics on environment, climate, and nature.

Who leads the coherence work

This topic is led by the Government Statistical Service (GSS) environment, climate and nature theme group. The group is chaired by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and vice-chaired by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025:

• the group made use of existing networks such as the Environmental Reporting Network and the GSS theme group to facilitate discussion and share good practice on wider environmental reporting and statistics
• Defra mapped published environmental data and statistics to identify areas to improve the efficiency and coherence of their environmental statistics and data — this work now informs departmental strategy
• Defra, Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies and the devolved governments worked with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to publish a report to examine alignment of existing UK and country Biodiversity Indicators with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was made available in April 2024 — further work has determined which indicators are still suitable to measure progress against the new GBF goals and targets, helped to align UK and country-level indicators to the GBF, to identify what gaps exist, and to plan the development of new indicators where required
• Defra published new statistics in April 2024 on indicators of species abundance in England as official statistics in development and held stakeholder engagement sessions to gather feedback to inform their ongoing development in May 2024 — this work enhances consistency across datasets, ensures stakeholder perspectives are integrated into methodological development, and contributes to a more unified evidence base for policy and decision-making
• the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) included estimates for all Protected Landscapes (including National Landscapes and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and National Parks in their local authority greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions statistics in June 2024
• Defra published new access to green space in England statistics in August 2024 and continued to engage with users on the ongoing development and expansion of new official statistics in development on this topic
• the ONS published an article in November 2024 on measuring progress, well-being and beyond GDP in the UK, themed around climate change and the environment
• the ONS published an article in November 2024 on public and business attitudes to the environment and climate change, Great Britain, which brings together relevant official statistics from across the GSS and ONS
• the ONS released quarterly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (residence basis) statistics in January 2025 as official statistics for the first time, and updated the explainer article on the three measures of UK emissions
• the ONS explored measuring environment productivity in the Public Service Productivity Review, which was published in March 2025

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

As well as continuing to produce a range of high-quality official statistics on this topic, so far this year:

• the GSS theme group has developed a shared vision for environment statistics and data
• the group has developed a GSS theme workplan, which sets out a high-level overview of cross-government statistical activities under their theme and supports transparency and coherence of statistical outputs and collaboration — the workplan is due to be published in autumn 2025
• the group has contributed to national and international discussions on upcoming framework and classification revisions, for example, the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Central Framework — this work ensures UK environmental economy measurement needs are understood and considered appropriately
• Defra has published the second update to the indicators of species abundance in England, which brings together data from multiple bodies and reporting schemes
• the ONS has released the first quality and methods guide for the UK natural capital accounts — the guide gives details about the strengths and limitations of ONS data, methods used, data uses, and users
• the ONS has published new marine and coastal margins natural capital accounts — this was made available in August 2025
• the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published a low carbon technologies factsheet using English Housing Survey data
• Defra has published new access to blue space in England statistics, which combine different data sources to show where natural and artificial water environments, or ‘blue spaces’, are and where they can be accessed — this information can be used to determine how many households have blue space within a 15-minute walk
• the ONS has worked with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to help countries with natural capital accounting

During the rest of the year:

• the group will continue to use existing networks across the GSS (including the Defra-led Environmental Reporting Network) to facilitate discussion and share good practice on wider environmental reporting and statistics
• Defra will continue to co-ordinate and support the increased alignment of existing UK and country Biodiversity Indicators with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and commission indicator development research where required — this work will inform the next report in 2026
• Defra plan to publish combined access to nature statistics in early 2026, which will bring together access to green and blue space data for the first time — this is part of the ongoing work around these official statistics in development
• Defra will continue to develop the official statistics in development on species abundance — Defra will also start developing indicators of species distribution
• DESNZ will carry out public user engagement activities (such as surveys and bespoke interviews) around local authority and regional greenhouse emissions statistics to ensure they best meet users’ needs, including whether they should enable reporting consistent with international reporting frameworks (such as the GHG Protocol for Cities and Global Covenant of Mayors Common Reporting Framework)
• the ONS will continue to develop inclusive income and wealth statistics, including statistics on ecosystem services — this also involves experimenting with nowcasting methods to produce timelier estimates
• the ONS will continue to lead development of a transparent and globally usable framework for official statistics reporting on climate and health — this framework, including accompanying statistical methods, will be hosted on the ONS knowledge-sharing platform to help users better estimate climate-related health risks using real-world data sources

Further information

You can find up-to-date statistics and data on this topic area by looking at the:

• ONS release calendar
• UK research and statistics directory
• Welsh Government research and statistics directory
• Scottish Government research and statistics directory
• Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Northern Ireland (NI) research and statistics directory

Statisticians working in this topic area concentrate on improving inclusivity of data, coherence, and accessibility of equality statistics across the UK particularly in relation to:

• protected characteristics groups
• people at greater risk of disadvantage
• socioeconomic status
• under-represented groups such homelessness and communal establishments
• geography

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This work facilitates a joined up approach across the statistical system to respond to the recommendations of the Inclusive Data Taskforce (IDTF). This includes an implementation plan to improve data inclusivity across the UK statistical system.

You can contact the team by emailing Equalities@ons.gov.uk.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025, the ONS:

• published the ‘Inclusive Data Taskforce commitments: Annual Progress Report 2024‘, which included an overview of the progress made to 2024
• published qualitative research titled ‘Women who have survived domestic abuse and their accommodation experiences in England: January to June 2023‘ — this was published in January 2025
• launched a new study exploring the lived experiences of Roma people in England and Wales
• continued working with colleagues across the Government Statistical Service (GSS) to address prioritised equalities data gaps identified by the IDTF in a coherent way — this work was informed by the National Statistician’s Inclusive Data Advisory Committee (NSIDAC) and the Future Population and Migration Statistics Programme (FPMS)

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year, the ONS has:

• successfully recruited a new Chair for the NSIDAC and are currently recruiting members for the Committee
• supported the Census 2031 Taskforce with research to provide understanding and insight into the respondent experience and ensure inclusivity is central to the census
• explored the inclusiveness of administrative data-based characteristics as an important part of FPMS statistical quality assurance

During the rest of the year, the ONS plans to:

• publish the final IDTF annual report in late summer 2025
• publish the findings of the lived experience of Roma people in England and Wales research
• relaunch the NSIDAC in October 2025

Further information

Read more about the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) Inclusive Data Taskforce.

Read more about the UKSA National Statistician’s Inclusive Data Advisory Committee (NSDIAC).

Statisticians working in this topic area concentrate on improving the harmonisation, coherence, and accessibility of health statistics across the UK.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the:

• Health Leadership Forum
• Cross-UK Data and Statistics Group
• UK Health Statistics Steering Group (UKHSSG), which oversees several theme groups

These theme groups include statistical producers from across the UK. They include but are not limited to:

• the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
• the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)
• NHS Business Services Authority
• NHS Digital
• Public Health Scotland
• Welsh Government
• the Department of Health, Northern Ireland
• NHS England
• the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

You can contact the teams working in this topic area by emailing GSS.Health@ons.gov.uk.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025:

• the ONS formed a smaller team to continue the health coherence work
• the UKHSSG has met on three occasions — this group aims to enhance the coherence, production, dissemination and accessibility of health and care statistics in the UK
• a monthly health and social care newsletter was sent across government to share what is happening across government on health and social care
• the UK health and care statistics landscape tool was updated — this tool allows users to explore official published health and care statistics from across the UK in one convenient location
• the ONS published a blog post on building a better understanding of the comparability UK health data

Working across the GSS and with devolved governments, the ONS also published coherence articles on:

• measuring NHS experience and satisfaction across the UK
• NHS planned care waiting times across the UK
• waiting times for cancer treatment across the UK

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year:

• the first quarterly meeting of the UKHSSG has taken place
• the UKHSSG end of life care theme group has published a short piece on the coherence of end of life statistics across the UK
• updates have continued to be made to the UK health and care statistics landscape tool — this tool allows users to explore official published health and care statistics from across the UK in one convenient location

During the rest of the year, the plan is to:

• continue regular meetings of the UKHSSG
• develop a proposal to improve the influence of the UKHSSG theme groups as well as improving how theme groups engage with the main UKHSSG group
• encourage more theme groups to publish information on the comparability of statistics related to their topics across the UK

Further information

Read more about health and care statistics.

Statisticians working in this topic area work on initiatives to improve the coherence and maximise the value of housing and planning statistics.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the Government Statistical Service (GSS) cross-government groups which cover the:

• Housing Steering Group
• Housing Statistics Working Group

You can contact the teams working in this topic area by emailing GSS.Housing@ons.gov.uk.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025 the ONS, GSS and devolved government teams have produced a range of statistics and analysis, including:

• an interactive tool showing who is exposed to rising housing costs in England and Wales, which brings together publicly available data from administrative and survey sources — this was published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in April 2024
• housing affordability ratios of house prices to small area model-based income estimates covering local areas in England and Wales — this was published by the ONS for the first time in June 2024
• energy rating of housing Northern Ireland up to March 2023, the first annual bulletin containing information on energy performance certificates, carbon dioxide emissions, and central heating fuel types — this was published by the Department for Communities (Northern Ireland) in July 2024 and uses similar methodology to the energy efficiency of housing release for England and Wales
• Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) that extended coverage to the UK from March 2025 — this has enabled the production of average rent levels for both Northern Ireland and the UK
• a more statistically complete overview of the net supply of Social Housing in England, which was provided in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) 2023 to 2024 Social Housing Sales and Demolitions release — this was published by the MHCLG in February 2025
• data on the number of first-time buyer mortgage sales at the local authority level across the UK — this was published by the ONS for the first time in March 2025, using Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) data
• analysis of housing data from Scotland’s 2022 Census — this was published by the National Records of Scotland, including the second release of multivariate data published in March 2025

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year:

• MHCLG has published a coherence article on housing quality metrics in England, which provides a discussion of the various sources of data, their strengths, weaknesses and how the data should be used — this was published in May 2025
• the ONS has published census-based statistics UK: 2021 on a range of census topics including Housing — this was published in June 2025 with statistics based on Census 2021 totals for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, added to estimated equivalent values from Scotland’s Census 2022
• the ONS has published a coherence article on private rented sector statistics from across the UK: 2025 — this article provides a summary of private rented sector statistics from across the UK to assess their comparability and limitations, and improve statistical coherence

During the rest of the year, the ONS plans to:

• explore private rented sector policies from across the UK and publish a coherence article on this in early 2026
• explore data from across the UK on empty homes and produce a coherence article which will be published in 2026 — this article will bring these statistics together to assess their comparability and limitations
• continue working with analysts across the GSS to improve the statistical coherence of housing and planning statistics, increasing the value of these statistics to inform current public policy and debate
• explore extending the private rental affordability statistics to cover the UK using newly available PIPR data — these statistics are currently only published for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
• work with the FCA to facilitate the data sharing of record level product sales mortgages data — this will enable the ONS to produce UK wide analysis of mortgages on topics such as affordability, tenure and first-time buyers

Further information

Read more about housing and planning statistics.

Read about the cross-government housing and planning work programme.

Statisticians working in this topic area concentrate on improving the coherence and accessibility of income and earnings statistics across the Government Statistical Service (GSS).

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the:

• GSS Income and Earnings Coherence Steering Group
• Office for National Statistics (ONS)

The GSS Income and Earnings Coherence Steering Group is made up of members from:

• the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• the ONS

You can contact the teams working in this topic area by emailing GSS.Income.Earnings@ons.gov.uk.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025:

• the ONS published a blog post entitled ‘Understanding the new income statistics for local areas: Different measures for better insights‘
• the ONS helped users to better understand the income landscape by publishing ‘Income statistics: Coherence and comparison information’, which is available as a related download from the income and earnings statistics guide
• the ONS published a 2024 to 2025 plan to improve the coherence of income and earnings statistics
• the ONS compared the income components in DWP and ONS household income statistics against international handbooks and frameworks — these are known as the Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Framework for Statistics on the Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth
• DWP published its latest children in low income families (CiLIF) release — this was calibrated to Households Below Average Income (HBAI) UK estimates for the first time, rather than regional estimates
• DWP published a CiLIF consultation on proposals for a new statistical series on After Housing Costs counts and proportions of children in low-income families — DWP has also published a consultation response on the Below Average Resources measure
• the ONS published an analysis article on small area household finance statistics entitled ‘Exploring the use of administrative data to derive small area income estimates, England and Wales‘
• the ONS introduced methods and processing improvements to the Annual Survey of Hours as Earnings (ASHE) in the October 2024 publication — this is explained in a blog post entitled ‘Exploring this year’s earnings figures‘

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year, the ONS has updated the existing income and earnings guidance to provide further information on the differences and similarities between the ONS and DWP household income statistics.

During the rest of the year, the plan is to:

• publish a 2025 to 2026 plan to improve the coherence of income and earnings statistics
• publish DWP’s Family Resources Survey (FRS) and related outputs including Household Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics using benefits administrative data for the first time in March 2026 — this was announced in the FRS release strategy
• publish DWP’s Universal Credit Low Income (UCLI) statistics for families in receipt of Universal Credit (UC) for the first time — this was announced in the latest CiLIF publication
• develop a plan for the work required to bring Household Finance statistics back to the standard needed for its users — this is intended to be published by ONS in the autumn and will build on the activities set out in the ONS Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan

Further information

The ONS released a Statement on the Survey of Living Conditions (SLC) to announce that the survey would cease and a newly streamlined Living Costs and Food survey (LCF) would be launched from 2026 to 2027.

Read more about income and earnings statistics.

Statisticians working in this topic area work on improving the coherence and quality of labour market statistics.

Please note that labour market was identified as a new priority coherence topic for this year. This means that information about coherence achievements for the previous year of April 2024 to March 2025 is not included.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) working closely with:

• Welsh Government
• Scottish Government
• the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

The Stakeholder Advisory Panel on Labour Market Statistics advises the Director General for Surveys, Economic and Social Statistics on the compilation, maintenance, and publication of ONS labour market statistics.

You can contact the teams working in this topic area by emailing Labour.Market@ons.gov.uk.

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year, the ONS has:

• continued work on developing the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), including launching the short core survey
• continued their work on improving the Labour Force Survey (LFS) quality and published an article on LFS quality
• used the monthly labour market overview bulletin to monitor the coherence of LFS estimates and other sources, providing advice on the appropriate use of LFS estimates — this advice has developed in line with the evolution of the data and its quality
• achieved accredited official statistics status in July 2025 for their ONS and HMRC Earnings and Employment from Pay As You Earn, Real Time Information publication
• published a blog post on the work planned on a linked employer-employee dataset (LEED)

During the rest of the year, the ONS plans to:

• continue their programme of work on TLFS — this includes analysis of a crossover survey to compare TLFS and LFS and working with NISRA to map the Northern Ireland Labour Market Survey (LMS) data against the ONS TLFS data
• continue their work on improving the LFS, including increasing interviewer capacity for waves 2 to 5
• publish further articles on LFS quality and coherence and update their comparisons of labour market data sources article
• progress full reweighting for LFS and related datasets, following the publication of subnational population projections
• uplift their short-term employment surveys so they are no longer run on legacy technology
• continue their work on developing a linked employer-employee dataset (LEED)
• begin feasibility work on Labour Accounts that provide a comprehensive understanding of the UK’s labour market, by using the optimum balance of survey and administrative data

Further information

Read more about the plan for ONS economic statistics.

Read about the ONS Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics.

Read about the transformation of labour market statistics.

Statisticians working in this topic area concentrate on providing high quality population and international migration statistics and insights.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by:

• the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• the National Records of Scotland (NRS)
• the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)
• Welsh Government (WG)

You can contact the teams working in this topic area by emailing Pop.Info@ons.gov.uk.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025:

• the ONS published mid-2023 population estimates for the UK
• the Inter Administration Committee agreed that administrative data-based population estimates (ABPEs) could be considered coherent with those produced from existing methods for Northern Ireland and Scotland, once they are made official estimates for England and Wales
• the ONS published mid-2023 admin-based population estimates as official statistics in development
• NRS published admin-based population, household and ethnicity estimates for Scotland
• NISRA published research into using administrative data for population estimates for Northern Ireland
• work continued to maximise the coherence of UK population estimates through ongoing work and information sharing, in line with the Concordat on Statistics and its supplementary statement of agreement
• the ONS published ‘Admin-based population estimates: local authority case studies, mid-2023 for England and Wales‘ to help users understand what is causing more notable differences between the ABPEs and the accredited official mid-year estimates — this work helped to build confidence in ABPEs
• the ONS published an article about the publication schedule for admin-based population and migration statistics for England and Wales to explain the ONS approach to revisions and the availability of data in the admin-based population and migration statistical system
• the ONS published provisional admin-based estimates of UK long-term international migration: year ending December 2023 and long-term international migration: year ending June 2024 — these publications provide the latest statistics on the number of people immigrating to and emigrating from the UK
• the ONS published ‘Reason for international migration, international students update: May 2024‘ and ‘Reason for international migration, international students update: November 2024‘ — these publications look in more detail at the migration of migrants coming to the UK for study, such as the demographics of these individuals, how long they stay, and what they study
• the ONS published ‘International migration research, progress update: February 2025‘ — this publication detailed the progress that has been made on new methods for EU+ and British Nationals methods

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year:

• the ONS has published UK estimates for a range of census topics based on Census 2021 totals for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have been added to estimated equivalent values derived from Scotland’s Census 2022
• NRS and the ONS have been commissioned by government to conduct a population census in Scotland, England and Wales in 2031, using administrative data where possible and appropriate
• NISRA has published its recommendations on the future of census and population statistics for Northern Ireland (NI), and these recommendations are broadly in line with the rest of the UK and support that a census be taken in 2031 — NI government approval is still pending at the time of writing
• NRS has launched a topic consultation for Scotland’s Census 2031 — each jurisdiction will design their own questionnaires to meet local user needs, but they will also work together to align approaches where possible in the interest of coherence across the UK, which may include a shared data-collection platform
• the ONS has included UK population estimates within the Explore Local Statistics service for the first time
• NRS has published mid-2024 population estimates for Scotland and NISRA published mid-2024 population estimates for Northern Ireland, incorporating the Statistical Population Dataset into the methodology to produce the Local Government District estimates
• the ONS has published admin-based population estimates for England and Wales alongside the official mid-2024 population estimates for Northern Ireland, including a comparison of the estimates, to inform users and seek feedback as part of the transformation of population statistics
• the ONS has published ‘UK Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2024‘ — this was published in May 2025 and included estimates of net migration, immigration and emigration, with breakdowns of nationality, age, sex, and reason for migration
• the ONS has published ‘Reason for international migration, international students update: May 2025‘, which gives a detailed insight into the migrants coming to the UK to study
• in partnership with HM Revenue and Customs, the ONS securely shared Pay As You Earn Real Time Information data with NISRA — these data have been processed by the ONS for analysis purposes and there are plans to share them with NRS in the autumn of 2025

During the rest of the year the ONS will:

• launch a Census 2031 topic consultation for England and Wales in Autumn 2025
• publish a report giving users guidance on the effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on Census 2021 outputs
• continue to work with NISRA and NRS enabling access to administrative data to support future population statistics development and the census
• continue research on the methods used to estimate EU+ migration and British national migration — an update on this will be published in November 2025, as well as updated UK long-term international migration outputs and international students work

Further information

Read the quarterly update on population and migration statistics.

Read ‘The future of population and migration: a statistical design’.

Read the population statistics and sources guide.

Statisticians working in this topic area concentrate on improving coherence and reducing trade data gaps across the four nations of the UK.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by:

• the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
• the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)
• Scottish Government
• Welsh Government

You can contact the teams working in this topic area by emailing Global.Trade.&.Investment@ons.gov.uk.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025:

• the ONS published subnational trade in goods and services timeseries — this covers UK regions and smaller geographies to International Territorial Level (ITL) 3 on a consistent basis from 2016 to 2022
• the ONS published new estimates of interregional trade at an ITL1 level for 2019 to 2020 as official statistics in development and updated the regional trade user guide
• NISRA produced a new Trade HTML page — this page brings together Northern Ireland (NI) and Great Britain (GB) trade statistics in one place to make it easier for users to access and understand

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year the ONS has published subnational trade in goods and services timeseries. This covers UK regions and smaller geographies to ITL3 level on a consistent basis from 2016 to 2023.

During the rest of the year the ONS plans to:

• publish a user guide on international trade data and related asymmetries — this guide aims to bring together information on trade asymmetries and signpost to available resources to help users to easily access the information they need
• publish new estimates of interregional trade at an ITL1 level for 2021 as official statistics in development
• update the regional trade user guide

NISRA plans to investigate the feasibility of producing a Northern Ireland version of Scotland’s ‘Inflation Adjusted HMRC Regional Trade Statistics for Scotland‘.

NISRA has been working with analysts in the Scottish Government to understand the methodology, coding and general approach in producing ‘Inflation Adjusted HMRC Regional Trade Statistics for Scotland’. It is intended that Northern Ireland’s methodology will be aligned with Scotland to ensure consistency and coherence.

NISRA has produced draft analysis and results for Northern Ireland and they are conducting an extensive validation and quality assurance exercise. Any plans for future publication and dissemination are resource-dependent and NISRA will investigate this further.

Further information

You can find more information about this topic area by emailing Global.Trade.&.Investment@ons.gov.uk.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), devolved governments and relevant departments have been working together to create and improve the coherence and comparability of UK-wide data in high-priority areas of shared interest. These priorities are identified each year through a prioritisation process involving the devolved governments, the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Heads of Profession and agreed by the Inter Administration Committee (IAC).

This section brings together all UK-wide coherence projects and includes some initiatives that are already covered in previous sections of this programme.

Who leads the coherence work

This work is led by the ONS, through regular engagement and work with:

• the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
• the Cabinet Office (CO)
• the GSS Heads of Profession

Governance of cross-UK coherence statistical work is through IAC, which is chaired by the National Statistician.

A UK-wide evidence and analysis steering board aims to improve access and use of evidence, and analysis across the UK. The steering board is chaired by Directors from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Cabinet Office (CO). The Secretariat is provided by the CO.

Main achievements from April 2024 to March 2025

From April 2024 to March 2025, working with the GSS and the devolved governments, the ONS has:

• established a new National Accounts cross-UK engagement and co-ordination group with representation from the devolved governments and the ONS
• published further health coherence articles exploring the comparability of NHS experience and satisfaction data across the UK; NHS planned care waiting times statistics across the UK; and cancer waiting time statistics across the UK
• updated the Health and Care Statistics interactive tool to provide UK-wide coverage of information — the tool provides signposting to published official health and care statistics across the UK in one location, which was previously available for England only
• expanded the coverage of the GSS health newsletter to become UK-wide — previously the newsletter was for England only
• continued work to set up processes and governance to share administrative data between the ONS and the devolved governments — this will support development of a future UK-wide population and migration statistics system that is coherent and harmonised across all four nations
• published new estimates of interregional trade in goods and services, UK: 2019 and 2020 by UK nation and English regions — these outputs are official statistics in development

The ONS also identified a new set of UK-wide coherence projects taking place across the GSS for the financial year April 2025 to March 2026. These were identified through engagement and consultation with relevant ONS teams, GSS teams and the devolved governments. These projects have also been agreed with the IAC and devolution colleagues from the Cabinet Office.

Achievements and plans for April 2025 to March 2026

So far this year, working with the GSS and the devolved governments, the ONS has:

• published UK-wide census-based statistics using 2021 Census data for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and estimated equivalent values derived from Scotland’s Census 2022
• securely onward shared HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) administrative data with the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) to support future population and migration statistics research and development — this data was processed by the ONS for analysis purposes before it was shared
• published a coherence article on private rented sector statistics from across the UK: 2025 — this article provides a summary and comparison of private rented sector statistics from across the UK

During the rest of the year, the ONS, GSS and devolved government teams will continue to work together to progress additional UK-wide projects. These include:

• working with NISRA and National Records of Scotland (NRS) to enable further onward sharing and access to administrative datasets to develop a future population and migration statistics system that is coherent and harmonised across all four nations of the UK — this includes plans to share PAYE RTI data with NRS in autumn 2025
• publishing a coherence article that will examine the cross-UK comparability of different policies for the private rented sector across the four nations
• publishing a coherence article comparing data and statistics available on empty homes across the UK
• seeking to extend the private rental affordability statistics publication to cover the UK using newly available Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) data — this is currently only published for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
• ongoing development of the ONS Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS)
• working with NISRA to map the Northern Ireland Labour Market Survey (LMS) data against the TLFS data
• a review of the education and training statistics for the UK publication — this review aims to better adapt the content of the publication to meet user needs and improve signposting to existing statistics across the UK, and will include user engagement activities around any proposed changes
• ongoing development of harmonised standards for sex and gender identity, and ethnicity — this will include a public consultation in autumn 2025 to gather views on the proposed response options for a new ethnicity harmonised standard
• progressing other longer-term projects such as developing a UK Health Index, building on the previously published health index for England — this work is subject to funding and options for this are being explored

The ONS is also working with the devolved governments to make sure the statistical designs and operations for each nation’s census in 2031 are aligned. This will be supported by memorandums of understanding and will help ensure outputs from each census across the UK are coherent. This follows recent announcements that NRS and ONS have been commissioned by government to conduct a population census in Scotland, and England and Wales in 2031. A decision to conduct a population census in Northern Ireland in 2031 is pending.

Further information

You can find more information about this topic area by emailing UK.Wide.Data.Coherence@ons.gov.uk.

To produce effective and coherent analysis, we must build partnerships across the analytical community and beyond. There are several other cross cutting initiatives that are related to statistical coherence which have been designed to join up the UK analytical system.

A strategy for Analysis in Government 2025 to 2028

This strategy sets out how the analytical community will provide better outcomes for the public by providing the best and most efficient analysis to inform decision making.

Read the strategy for Analysis in Government.

User Engagement Strategy for Statistics

This strategy promotes a theme-based approach to user engagement. We are exploring if we can transition alignment of current coherence work programme themes to the 12 new core statistical engagement themes.

Read the user engagement strategy for statistics.

GSS Harmonisation Workplan

Harmonisation is about improving the consistency, comparability and coherence of data and statistics. Harmonisation and coherence activities are complementary.

Read the GSS harmonisation workplan.

GSS Subnational Data Strategy

This framework acts as a guide for the GSS to help produce and disseminate subnational statistics in a more timely, granular, and harmonised way.

Read the GSS subnational data strategy.

This is further brought into action through the ONS subnational workplan, which sets out the ONS’s current and future work related to subnational statistics and analysis.

Inclusive Data Taskforce Implementation Plan

The National Statistician has committed to improve data inclusivity across the UK statistical system. This will be achieved by taking a system wide approach in identifying and working together on initiatives so that everyone counts and is counted in UK data and evidence.

Read the Inclusive Data Taskforce Implementation Plan on the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) website.

The Government Data Quality Framework

This framework sets out the principles and practices to assess, communicate and improve the quality of data in government.

Read the Government Data Quality Framework on GOV.UK.

There are several resources we would recommend looking at to develop your understanding of statistical coherence, including:

• the coherence insight report produced by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in 2019 — this report concentrates on coherence and outlines a framework to support analysts when developing statistics and analysis
• the coherence user research work — this report contains the findings from a series of qualitative interviews with data users about the challenges and opportunities they experience when bringing together government data
• the UK Concordat on Statistics — this is a jointly agreed framework to guide the UK Government, and the Northern Ireland, Scottish, and Welsh Governments when they work together on statistical projects
• the Code of Practice for Statistics — the code states that “producers must demonstrate that they do not simply publish a set of numbers, but that they explain how they relate to other data on the topic, and how they combine with other statistics to better explain the part of the world they describe”
• the National Statistical blog post ‘Embedding joined up insight across UK statistics’ discusses and summarises recent achievements and other statistical work taking place in this area
• the Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) by Professor Denise Lievesley CBE — this independent evaluation assessed the UKSA’s governance, efficacy, accountability, and efficiency and made recommendations for improvement, including the need for more UK-wide comparable data through improved common standards, harmonisation and coherence
• the Independent report on the 2025 UK Statistics Assembly — this event took place in response to a recommendation in the Lievesley review and brought together users from central, local and devolved governments, business and industry, academia, civil society and charities to discuss and advise on the statistical and data priorities for the UK statistical system, including the need for greater statistical coherence
• the adequacy of UK-wide comparable statistics and data review produced by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) — this review provides recommendations and a framework that will help the UK statistical system make the changes needed to produce UK-wide comparable statistics and data on priority topics