Analysis in policy
Analysis is a collaborative activity supporting the development and delivery of policy, project delivery and operations across government. Ministers and other leaders rely on analysis to inform their decisions. Understanding the rationale for a decision that needs to be made enables the appropriate type and rigour of analysis to be undertaken.
A variety of data and analytical approaches can be used to build the evidence to support decision makers, and it is not unusual for different approaches to be used at different points in the development of the analytical results.
Skills analysts can bring
Analysts can help to ensure that the formulation of government policy is founded on sound analytical principles and procedures. They proactively suggest solutions to problems based on evidence, set out innovative approaches, and provide constructive challenge. They are skilled in a variety of data collection, validation, analysis, and dissemination techniques, relevant to their background and profession. Analysts are partners to policy makers and other colleagues.
Figure 1: Diagram showing how the Analytical cycle aligns to the Policy Profession standards and Policy cycle
The diagram shows the three pillars of the Policy Profession standards, (Strategy, Democracy and Delivery) and the three stages of the Policy cycle (Conception, Development and Delivery). It shows how four stages of the Analytical Cycle align with the Policy Profession standards and cycle. Initial customer engagement /scoping (5.2) and designing the analysis (5.3) align with Strategy and Conception, conducting and checking the analysis (5.4) aligns with Democracy and Development, and delivering the analysis (5.5) aligns with Delivery. This guidance will explain how the analytical cycle can align with the Policy Profession standards and cycle and how analysts can help with policy development at each stage.
Analysis and Policy standards
More information about the role of analysis and policy in government is available in the Government Functional Standards:
- Government Functional Standard GovS 010: Analysis – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Policy Profession Standards Annex (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Pillar One: Strategy – using evidence and analysis
Generating, assessing, and applying evidence and analysis to understand the context and develop new strategies.
Policy cycle – conception
How analysts can help
Advise on what evidence is available and who can help
Working with analysts and collating evidence at the outset of policy development will help you determine and articulate the rationale and objectives of your work and understand what evidence is available in doing so. Aside from contributing to major projects or phased programmes of work where analysts will work with teams to develop an evidence base from scratch, analysts should be able to advise on existing evidence for any policy area at points within the policy cycle.
Analysts can help to find what evidence is available. Analysts may be able to provide you with key headlines figures that are readily available to inform your policy area or offer alternative options. If evidence is not readily available, analysts can help collect data and ensure it is fit for purpose for your project.
Key figures and statistics in analysis across government are the product of a range of different analytical professions, who can help in different ways:
Data scientists
Identify complex business problems by exploring and visualising data to support strategic and operational decision making. They often analyse and interpret large data sets using algorithmic, data mining, artificial intelligence, machine learning and statistical tools, and are specialists in data visualisation.
Analysts in DDAT
Provide research and analysis to understand how a business or business area works, identify user needs and areas or improvement.
Economists
Create models to forecast economic developments and provide insight to support policy development and public service delivery across government.
Government actuaries
Provide advice and support to the government and public sector to understand and analyse financial risk and uncertainty.
Geographers
Analyse geospatial and georeferenced data and use specialist geographic knowledge and techniques to contextualise and support decision making and develop policies.
Operational Researchers
Use scientific expertise and mathematical modelling to find better solutions to government policy making and resolve complex management problems.
Social Researchers
Providing expertise in applied quantitative and qualitative design and analysis approaches to enable government to understand issues relating to society, groups and individuals.
Statisticians
Support the production of official statistics for the economy, population, and the environment to provide a firm evidence base for decision making in government.
Pillar Two: Democracy – understanding and supporting
Understanding and supporting good governance and accountability through the production of robust and challenging advice to inform decisions.
Policy cycle – development
How analysts can help
Understand the relevance and context of your data
Evidence should be a key element of appraisals and monitoring. The costs and benefits of each option should be based on robust evidence. For example, analysis by social researchers and geographers may be useful for understanding distributional impacts, while economists will be able to support you in understanding relative price movements and statisticians can support you in using weighting models.
Understanding the quality and limitations of your data
Analysts will be able to provide you with a summary of the metadata (information about data provided), to help you understand its relevance and quality. This can include:
- collection methods, such as sample size and any strengths and limitations of the research design
- coverage, such as the geographical, demographic or operational factors that are included or excluded
- timing and timeliness, such as how regularly data is produced, its reference period or the timing of the next release
Legal and ethical data implications
It is important to be aware of legislation and codes of practice that apply to the data you use. This could be using personal data and being compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), or using analysis or analytical methods which could lead to biased data and discrimination. More information can be found on Data Ethics Framework from the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO).
The following pages contain detailed information about dimensions of data quality that may be useful for understanding the information you receive:
- Meet the data quality dimensions – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Code of Practice for Official Statistics
- Quality statistics in government – Government Analysis Function (civilservice.gov.uk)
Pillar Three: Delivery- designing policy implementation
Designing policy implementation and delivery systems in collaboration with delivery partners and users, including how policies will be evaluated and improved.
Policy cycle – Delivery
How analysts can help
Advise on how the evidence can be presented
There are range of presentational formats that evidence may be presented in, including descriptive findings and conclusions, graphs, infographics, and maps. Data visualisations can be a powerful tool for communicating complex information and can tell different stories about a dataset, but not all data visualisations will suit the intended purpose. Analysts should always be able to provide commentary to support data visualisations.
Advise on how the data can be shared
Analysts can help clarify if data is available publicly or whether it is restricted.
If the evidence is not publicly available, you may be able to access and share data if you and your team have the appropriate security clearance and sharing practices in place.
If the evidence is available publicly it should have gone through a rigorous quality assurance process ahead of publication. However, it is always worth checking what quality assurance processes were used, and whether this could pose any risks or limitations when using the information.
Practical tips
Accessing and presenting headline figures and analysis should be sought throughout the policy making process. Using a factsheet will help ensure that you are asking the right questions to analysts and considering the key principles when using analysis in policy.
We have included some helpful tips to keep in mind when using the factsheet:
- have early conversations with your analytical colleagues to be clear what evidence you need, if this is not available analysts can explore other options
- be mindful that some evidence is not readily available, it may take analysts time to process seemingly available information to ensure its robustness
- be clear what your deadline is and check that the analyst will be able to meet it
- check that any data or documentation shared by analysts can be supported by your internal systems
- ensure someone in your team is responsible for regularly keeping the progress of your up to date to avoid incorrect evidence being used
- save your factsheet on your team’s shared folder so all can access and update
Contact
If you have any examples of where analysts and policy professionals have worked well together to share data or facts and figures, please let us know by emailing the Analysis Function Analysis.Function@ons.gov.uk or the Policy Profession Enquiries.MAILBOX@policyprofession.gov.uk.