About the GSS, GSG, government professions and Analysis Function

The Government Statistical Service (GSS)

The GSS is a community for all civil servants working in the collection, production and communication of official statistics.

If you work with official statistics in any way you are in the Government Statistical Service (GSS). You don’t have to pass a badging exercise or any other tests.

This means the GSS is made up of over 9,000 government statisticians, data scientists, researchers, economists, policy experts, business support teams, data journalists, data visualisation experts, methodologists, media experts etc.

The Government Statistician Group (GSG)

The GSG is made up of the statisticians and data scientists working in government who have passed a GSG badging exercise. This can be done as part of the interview process or you can ‘go through badging’ when you are already working in the GSS.

Some government data scientists will not be in the GSG because they have passed a badging exercise for a different government profession, such as the Government Operational Research Service or the Government Digital and Data profession.

The GSS, GSG and how they fit together

Anyone who works with official statistics is in the Government Statistical Service (GSS). But only those who have passed a Government Statistician Group (GSG) badging exercise are in the GSG. This means the GSG sits within the GSS.

Other government professions

The GSG is a government profession group. But it’s not the only one – there are a range of other professions within government.

The Analysis Function

The Analysis Function is a cross government network consisting of around 17,000 people involved in the generation and dissemination of analysis across government and beyond.

The government professions within the Analysis Function include:

• Government Digital and Data profession
• Government Actuary’s Department
• Government Economic Service (GES)
• Government Geography Profession
• Government Operational Research Service (GORS)
• Government Social Research (GSR)
• Government Statistician Group (GSG)

The mission of the Analysis Function is to support the government to make better decisions by helping everyone easily access the advice, analysis, research and evidence they need, using consistent, professional standards.