ScotStat Board Meeting Minutes: June 2025

Attendees and apologies

Board members

• Ana Basiri (AB)
• Camilla Barnett (CB)
• John Curtice (JC)
• Susan McVie (SM)
• Ken Roy (KR)
• João Sousa (JS)

Officials/Speakers/Observers

• Lee Bunce (LB), Office of the Chief Statistician, Secretariat
• Lisa Clark (LC), Office of the Chief Statistician, Secretariat
• Alice Gowenlock (AG), Office of the Chief Statistician, Secretariat
• Scott Heald (SH), Public Health Scotland
• Ally McAlpine (AM), Chief Statistician
• Nora Mielke (NM), Office of the Chief Statistician, Speaker
• Jonathon Wroth-Smith (JWS), National Records of Scotland

Apologies

• Roeland Beerten (RB), Board Member
• Lucien Staddon Foster (LSF), Board Member
• Amy Wilson (AW), Deputy Director Health Workforce Planning and Delivery, Secretariat

Items and actions

Actions from last meeting

Following on from a paper at a previous meeting, a question was raised regarding paused or stopped publications.  While Scottish Government has ceased publishing social care waiting times, Public Health Scotland continues to publish weekly figures on people waiting for assessments.

PHS and Scottish Government are working together on a Social Care Data & Intelligence Programme which will modernise the availability and use of social care data in Scotland. Both organisations have resourcing challenges and are combining their staff resource to take a ‘one team’ approach to modernising social care data and transforming the availability of data on social care. A comprehensive review is underway to clarify the roles and responsibilities between the two organisations in producing social care statistics. The aim is to reduce duplication and present a more unified approach.

It was emphasised that it is important to communicate this ‘one team, two organisations’ approach clearly to the public and ministers. There is a need to produce a coherent summary of the available social care data.

Clarification was sought on whether the coherent summary and the available data are considered a single output or separate products, along with questions about the actual waiting times for social care assessments.

Update from the Chief Statistician

A review of the sex and gender guidance is planned for early next year. Office of the Chief Statistician (OCS) are considering carefully how to proceed following the recent Supreme Court ruling. Work is ongoing to ensure compliance and align with a UK-wide approach.

The Scottish Government will stop funding the ONS boost to the Labour Force Survey, given its reserved status and concerns around cost-effectiveness. Alternative data sources are being explored, including administrative and banking data through a potential partnership with Smart Data Foundry. A feasibility study is under development. The board expressed the view that a strong case is needed to support any shift in approach including considering ethical, governance and methodological matters.

The Chief Statistician provided a further update on the system-wide move from SAS to R/Posit, cloud migration, and work towards a Scottish version of the Rapid Dataset. Developments linked to the UK spending review and investment in digital services were also noted.

Population and Migration Statistics

The Board heard about recent developments following the joint announcement on 17 June confirming a UK-wide census in 2031. This will involve closer collaboration across the UK, with a stronger role for administrative data. The aim is to make the census more efficient and responsive to user needs, building on the success of Scotland’s 2022 Census.

In Scotland, engagement work is already underway, including a Census User Review and a programme of summer sessions to understand how data is used and what improvements users want. This will also help shape the business case. Scotland will continue to prioritise coherence with the rest of the UK while ensuring the needs of Scottish users are met.

Closer coordination is already happening around census design, shared services, and cost models. National Records of Scotland (NRS) is learning from Northern Ireland’s approach and exploring shared tools such as contact centres and data protection processes. NRS also presented an overview of the administrative data sources they already use and those they are working to access, such as anonymised DWP and HMRC data.

There was discussion around the risks and limitations of relying more heavily on admin data. NRS stressed that they are keeping pace with ONS and can already produce good estimates, though migration flows remain complex. Concerns were raised about parity of data access with ONS, the consistency of the methods used by ONS and NRS, and the potential impact on funding allocations. These will be raised with the relevant UK committees.

NRS continues to work on transparency, data security and public engagement, including panels through the Research Data Scotland programme. Board members noted the importance of engaging with the broader public, not just those already comfortable with data sharing, and welcomed the ongoing alignment across the UK statistical system.

Future of Census

The Board endorsed the decision to proceed with a census in 2031 and discussed how to secure long-term commitment to funding and alignment across the UK. While Scottish Ministers have agreed to the next steps, this only covers the coming year. The Board agreed to write formally to Scottish Ministers, stressing the importance of consistency, adequate funding and a joined-up approach. The Chief Statistician committed to making those views known at the UK level through appropriate channels.

Board members emphasised the need for resilience in the system and investment in both public engagement and admin data infrastructure. Concerns were raised about sustaining skills between census cycles and avoiding the inefficiencies of stop–start funding.

The importance of clear and inclusive communication was underlined, with the 2022 evaluation providing a strong basis for improvement. The upcoming engagement campaign will be an early test of public readiness. If Scotland’s response rates fall behind, there may be political and statistical consequences, so preparation must begin now.

The Board agreed to:

• Endorse the 2031 census commitment
• Support continued and stable investment
• Promote a strong public engagement strategy
• Push for a broader approach to public engagement that builds beyond a single survey

Workstream on consulting on statistics

The Board turned to its third strategic workstream: how producers consult and engage with users. The discussion recognised a growing gap between the intention of user-centred statistics and the reality of fragmented or faded engagement structures.

The group agreed that many producers appear not to have a clear picture of who their users are, how statistics are being used, or how to engage effectively — particularly in areas like justice. There is a lack of visibility, limited consultation, and a loss of structures like the ScotStat network, which previously offered a more coordinated approach across sectors.

The Board agreed to start its investigations into this subject by focusing on justice statistics, drawing on SM’s experience in this area. Business and economic statistics will follow. They also stressed the need to consider informal feedback, underrepresented groups and early-stage engagement, rather than relying solely on formal consultations.

Key points included:

• Rebuilding lost consultation frameworks (e.g. ScotStat networks)
• Prioritising user mapping and early engagement at the design stage
• Tracking informal as well as formal feedback
• Ensuring diverse voices are heard, including those less likely to respond to formal processes

The long-term aim is to develop good practice guidance to support effective and inclusive user consultation across the devolved statistical system.

Workstream on governance and assurance of Scottish Government statistics

The Board explored whether improvements are needed to the management and governance of official statistics in Scotland, in light of concerns raised by the 2022 Census and Health and Wellbeing Census.

These cases highlighted gaps in consultation, coordination, and external engagement. They also revealed wider system-level issues around accountability, independence, and resilience — especially in early-stage decision-making.

Two structural differences with the rest of the UK were noted:

• Most producers in Scotland are within government, not at arm’s length.
• Fragmentation looks different in Scotland.

The Board welcomed ongoing research into the governance of the statistical system, with findings expected in September and reporting to Ministers due in October.

Key themes included:

• Responsibility and escalation: Early decisions often happen in silos, and issues may not escalate to senior leadership soon enough.
• Checks and balances: These need to be built in from the start, not retrofitted after problems emerge.
• Independence in practice: Statisticians are guided by the Code, but clarity is needed around what this means day to day — especially when funding decisions are political.
• System resilience: The system needs to be prepared for future challenges, including greater political scrutiny.
• Culture and capacity: There is strong collaboration and professionalism across the system, but teams often lack the resource to apply principles fully. Culture change efforts are ongoing, supported by the Chief Statistician.

Some Board members felt the system is broadly coherent and less fragmented than elsewhere in the UK. Others emphasised that problems may lie more in management and communication than in structure. Stronger user engagement, earlier transparency, and better communication about independence were seen as essential.

The group welcomed the idea of exploring additional groups to support governance, possibly through new ScotStat Board sub-groups or task and finish groups, to strengthen governance and collective oversight.

The Board agreed to revisit this topic later in the year, once further work and evidence in this space becomes available. In the meantime, members will keep these issues in mind when shaping future work. There is support in principle for exploring reforms to support better governance and resilience at the appropriate time.

Future Survey Strategy

The Board considered the long-term survey strategy for the Scottish Government, focusing on the three main household surveys that provide key evidence for policy. Challenges highlighted include falling response rates, rising costs, interviewer recruitment difficulties, and pressure on budgets, alongside growing demand for more detailed and timely data.

The strategy is built around five pillars: rationalising surveys to reduce overlap and identify essential data, designing surveys to meet user needs, modernising methods through mixed modes and technology, integrating survey data with census and administrative sources, and improving communication with both the public and internal users.

Board members stressed the need to define clearly what makes a survey essential, and to balance efficiency with maintaining data quality and inclusivity. There was support for exploring more flexible survey approaches but caution against losing valuable data. The Board also noted the importance of improving internal understanding of the value of surveys and aligning survey reform with broader statistical system changes.

Overall, the Board welcomed further discussion and collaboration on the strategy, recognising that while short-term costs and changes are likely, the goal is a more sustainable, high-quality survey system that delivers value for money and reduces public burden.

Any Other Business

• The Minister for Parliamentary Business will meet with the Chairs of the ScotStat Board in Glasgow over the summer.
• The Board will meet virtually for a briefing with ScotCen on 16 September 2025 about their work on Pre-Release Access (PRA).
• The Board agreed that future meetings will be recorded, to support the production of accurate minutes and transcriptions.
• A review of the Board’s effectiveness will take place in January 2026, marking 18 months since its formation.

Actions

• Chief Statistician to share feasibility study on SmartDataFoundry work with the Board when available.
• SH to provide further information on waiting times and the development of a coherent summary of social care data in due course.
• Office of the Chief Statistician will schedule a meeting between JS and CB and the Labour Force Survey Team in Scottish Government.
• Chief Statistician to bring forward a timeline for the sex and gender guidance review and provide updates on the feasibility study.
• Board to write to Ministers endorsing the current census approach and emphasising the need for consistency, ongoing funding, and a strong public engagement strategy.
• The next Board meeting will include a discussion of user engagement, with an initial focus in Justice statistics.
• Board to continue monitoring governance issues around coordination, engagement, and decision-making transparency within the statistical system, and to explore reform of ScotStat structures to improve governance and resilience.
• Chief Statistician to keep governance considerations in mind when providing updates to the Board.
• Board to consider establishing a group to examine the role and value of surveys alongside administrative data.