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Changing VATitudes towards admin data methods

Having a master’s degree in economics and experience in the telematics industry, you can understand my excitement to put my knowledge to work on economic methods research when the Methodological Research Hub was established earlier in the year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is committed to addressing the strategic recommendations made in the Independent […]

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Chicago machine learning . . . and all that jazz!

As a new starter to the Office for National Statistics, (ONS) I’m on a mission to grow. One part of that mission is to become a better data scientist by tackling Machine Learning (ML), a branch of data science which focuses on the use of data and algorithms to imitate the way that humans learn. […]

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Secondment to BBC News: the time I had to deputise for the Head of Statistics

I have worked at The Office for National Statistics (ONS) ever since leaving university. The pandemic ignited lots of great work opportunities, but I always knew I wanted to try something different and challenge myself in a way that I hadn’t before. I noticed an advert for a secondment at BBC News and thought it […]

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Developing an interactive dashboard for the Outcome Indicator Framework

At the end of 2019, team leader Christine Holleran visited the Office for National Statistics in Newport to learn about their OpenSDG platform. She immediately saw the potential for reusing the platform to present The Department Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(Defra) Outcome Indicator Framework indicators which have been developed to measure the governments progress towards the […]

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New is always better?

“New is always better!”, so says Barney Stinson in the long running comedy ‘How I Met Your Mother’, encouraging his friends to constantly move on and try new things. The joke being that his friend Ted wants nothing more than to find his soulmate and spend the rest of his life with the same person. […]

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Next slide, please!

Presenting statistics to the nation at the coronavirus (COVID-19) press conferences It’s hard to believe that we’ve been supporting the 10 Downing Street press conferences for a year now. Back in March 2020, along with the rest of the UK, we started watching these briefings on the television. We remember wondering… who is producing these […]

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Thinking geographically in the Civil Service

Throughout the summer, I have been fortunate enough to be on a summer placement through the Government Statistical Service (GSS) at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). I immediately found myself in the thick of it in a team of economists, working on analysis regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol. While a mainstream […]

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Accessibility empathy for users of spreadsheets

The current spreadsheet situation The Government Statistical Service (GSS) and Analysis Function (AF) publish a lot of spreadsheets across the ONS website, GOV.UK and various departmental and devolved government websites. I don’t know the exact figure, but I am going to say it is thousands, if not millions (!) in any given year. At the […]

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New to the game: statistics, methods, research and me

Six months ago I joined the Methodological Research Hub in the Office for National Statistics’ Methodology Division, with a focus on developing methods for producing official statistics using administrative data. Coming from a psychology background, my first few weeks were quite difficult – I felt way behind in my statistical knowledge, and I couldn’t imagine […]

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Fast Stream secondment to Singapore

I’m Olivia and I’m a fourth year Stats Fast Streamer. I’ve just completed my last Fast Stream posting, where I was fortunate enough to be placed in the Department for International Trade (DIT) overseas post in the British High Commission (BHC) in Singapore. Given the challenges of working overseas during the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, my […]

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