Office of National Statistics ‘can’t produce statistics on its own performance’
A committee of MPs has lambasted cuts to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), saying the offices will soon be “unable to perform” their tasks.
It said the cuts, implemented under the 2004 Gershon Report efficiency programme, were creating “structural weaknesses” in the two bodies.
HMRC has saved £507 million and the ONS £24 million while the Treasury itself has only been asked to find £11.9 million.
The Gershon Report called for the departments to cut 16,850 jobs and relocate many posts to outside London.
But MPs were unconvinced by ONS and HMRC officials’ attempts to convince them of the savings they had made.
In a damning assessment of the impact of the changes, the committee said HMRC had relied too heavily on staff reductions to save money, leading to anxiety among the workforce.
Furthermore, ONS statistical output would deteriorate if cuts continue, and the relocation of jobs to Wales has been “inadequately planned”.
It urged the Treasury to review the “implementation of the efficiency programme in the ONS or the resources allocated to the department to achieve that implementation”.
Communication with staff over the move of 850 jobs to Wales had been “haphazard and inadequate”, and the relocation “poses risks to the quality of statistics”, the MPs said.
“Unless action is taken to alleviate some of those pressures, there is a significant risk that the new Statistics Board will inherit an organisation which is unable to perform its tasks to the necessary standard because of structural weaknesses,” the report concluded.
Tory committee chairman Michael Fallon said both departments had “failed to convince us that their claims – both on the savings made and the quality of their services – are founded on sufficiently robust grounds.
“It is ironic, and a source of concern, that the ONS can’t produce statistics on its own performance.”
The general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Mark Serwotka, welcomed the findings.
“The lack of data on the impact that job cuts and relocation are having on the quality of services is of deep concern and suggests that the efficiency programme is more about reaching arbitrary targets rather than improving services,” he said.
“One of the central aims of the efficiency programme was that services wouldn’t suffer, yet day in day out we are seeing backlogs and services damaged.”
But the ONS reacted angrily to the committee’s findings, saying the transfer of work to Wales will not affect the department’s output.
In an email to the committee, it said: “Relocation to south Wales will enhance our ability to produce quality statistics, not reduce it.
“Relocation, combined with ONS’s efficiency savings programme, does give rise to risks, but these risks are being managed.”
ONS statistics are of central importance to the Britain’s financial performance. The Bank of England makes interest rate decisions based on its findings and it remains the most relied-upon source of statistical information in the UK.
