Offi ce for National Statistics Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06 www.statistics.gov.uk HC1240 Offi ce for National Statistics Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06 Presented to the House of Commons in pursuance of section 6(4) of the Government Resource and Accounts Act 2000 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 13 July 2006 HC 1240 LONDON: The Stationery Office £20.50 © Crown copyright 2006. Published with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. You may re-use this publication (excluding logos) free of charge in any format for research, private study or internal circulation within an organisation. You must re-use it accurately and not use it in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and you must give the title of the source publication. Where we have identified any third party copyright material you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is also available on the Office for National Statistics website: www.statistics.gov.uk/about For any other use of this material please apply for a Click-Use Licence for core material at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/system/online/plogin.asp or by writing to: Office of Public Sector Information Information Policy Team St Clements House 2–16 Colegate Norwich NR3 1BQ Fax: 01603 723000 Email: [email protected] For more information, contact: National Statistics Customer Contact Centre Office for National Statistics Government Buildings Cardiff Road Newport NP10 8XG Tel: 0845 601 3034 Email: [email protected] Minicom: 01633 652747 Office for National Statistics Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06 Contents Message from the Director 1 I Directors Report Background 3 ONS aims and objectives 4 ONS management 4 Top board structure 5 People 8 Health and safety 9 Progress towards sustainable development 10 Freedom of Information 10 The European Union 11 II Management Commentary Background 13 Independence 13 2005/06 review 15 Summary of fi nancial performance – key points 15 Summary of achievements 18 Risk management 25 Stakeholder management 25 III Remuneration Report Remuneration policy 28 Service contracts 28 Salary and pension entitlements 29 Annexes Annex A 35 Targets from the 2004 Spending Review 35 Targets from the 2002 Spending Review 41 Extant targets from earlier spending reviews 43 Annex B 45 ONS publishing plan 45 Resource Accounts 53 Office for National Statistics Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06 Message from the Director I was delighted to be appointed as the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Registrar General for England and Wales and National Statistician in August 2005. It is an honour to succeed Len Cook, and I look forward to consolidating his inspirational leadership. I believe we can deliver on the agenda Len started and I will be working closely with the executive team to find the best way to meet the challenges we face. Obviously, we are now taking forward work to make ONS independent of government, following the Chancellor’s announcement in November 2005. The independence agenda has quite rightly been a priority for me over this initial period of my tenure, and will no doubt continue to take up a large proportion of my time. I see it as vital to ensure that we maximise the opportunity the Chancellor’s announcement has afforded us to put the UK statistical system on a strong legislative footing, reinforcing both the integrity and independence of the way we operate, and building on our international reputation of having one of the strongest statistical systems throughout the world. Aside from independence, I shall be continuing the large-scale modernisation programme started by my predecessor, which I was very closely involved with in my previous role. As Director of ONS my main goal over the next few years is to deliver the benefits of the statistical, technological, registration and corporate services modernisation that we are about half way through. This will enable us to release and redeploy resources – both human and cash – in order to improve the quality of our current outputs and add new ones, using the rich data sources available to us. I have become Director in a very challenging period for the Office and will use my knowledge and experience of ONS people, culture and the business to drive forward and deliver on the modernisation goal. Resources will be tight and we have major relocation and efficiency programmes to manage while we strive to achieve our business goals. This means keeping a close eye on the essentials. I have, therefore, focused my attention, during the initial period of my posting, on: • ensuring that we effectively prioritise our activities and outputs to meet the changing needs of our customers and the world around us. This means making a rigorous analysis of both existing and proposed outputs to make sure that our resources are placed where they have most impact • enabling staff to exploit the new environment by equipping them with relevant skills and opportunities, delivering improvements in our performance management and ensuring all staff have a clear career path supported by the staged implementation of job families and the Professional Skills for Government programme, and • completing the current relocation and efficiency programmes 1 The ONS Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06 presents a review of 2005/06 and the accounts for that year, which have been audited by the National Audit Office. We have worked closely with the National Audit Office. I have taken steps to make myself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the National Audit Office is aware of that information. Karen Dunnell July 2006 2 Office for National Statistics Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06 I Directors Report Background The Office for National Statistics (ONS) was established as an executive agency and government department on 1 April 1996. It has around 5,200 staff (4,400 full-time equivalents) operating in Newport in South Wales, London, Southport and Titchfield in Hampshire. Of these, 1,320 (750 full-time equivalents, of whom 60 per cent are home-based) are interviewers who collect information for social surveys. The Director and Permanent Secretary of ONS is Karen Dunnell. Karen succeeded Len Cook on 1 September 2005. She is also the National Statistician (the Government’s chief statistical adviser and professional head of National Statistics), the Registrar General for England and Wales and the Accounting Officer. The National Statistician is responsible for the methods and quality of National Statistics and for maintaining the standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice and supporting Protocols. The Registrar General for England and Wales is responsible for the delivery of Civil Registration in England and Wales. In practice she ensures that ONS works in partnership with local authorities to administer the registration of key life events. ONS is currently relocating staff from London to Newport, which became the headquarters of the department in April 2006, and to Titchfield; some posts are also moving from Titchfield to Newport. The Director of ONS is accountable to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown MP, for the department’s performance. On 28 November 2005 the Chancellor announced his intention to legislate to make the Office for National Statistics independent of government. More details on this are given on pages 13–15 of this report. The Chancellor delegates ministerial responsibility for ONS to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, John Healey MP. Mr Healey’s remuneration is included in HM Treasury’s accounts. 3 ONS aims and objectives ONS’s mission is to provide trustworthy official statistics and an efficient registration service, which enable timely and decisive government, business and community activities. All statistics prepared by ONS are accessible and users are able to make enquiries about and studies of ONS surveys (in controlled situations). ONS’s strategic objectives are: • to be an authoritative and trusted publisher of statistics about the UK economy and society • to ensure the efficient and accurate registration of key life events • to drive the development of National Statistics • to contribute to the leadership of the statistical system of the European Union (EU) and ensure that engagement in international statistics is effective in the breadth of issues important to the UK ONS management Top management Director and Permanent Secretary of ONS Karen Dunnell National Statistician Registrar General for England and Wales Stephen Penneck Executive Director Surveys and Administrative Sources Directorate Jil Matheson Executive Director Census, Demographic and Regional Statistics Directorate Social and Public Services Analysis and Joe Grice Executive Director Reporting Directorate Colin Mowl Executive Director Macro-economics and Labour Market Directorate Dennis Roberts Executive Director Registration and Corporate Services Directorate Steve Newman Executive Director Finance and Planning Directorate Cynthia Clark Executive Director Methodology Directorate Mike Hughes Secretary to the Board National Statistics and Planning Group During 2005/06 the following were also members of the Executive Management Group: • Len Cook: National Statistician; Director of ONS; Registrar General for England and Wales. Contract ended 31 August 2005 4 Office for National Statistics Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06 • Hilary Douglas: Chief Operating Officer; Executive Director, Corporate Development Directorate. Secondment ended 31 March 2006 • Dayantha Joshua: Corporate Director, Information Management Group Non-executive directors Professor Janet Finch Vice Chancellor, Keele University Sir Robert Culpin Formerly Second Permanent Secretary (HM Treasury) Alex Jablonowski Formerly Divisional CEO of Barclays and CEO of a private and merchant bank. Note During 2005/06 Gwen Batchelor’s term as a non-executive director ended. Top board structure The ONS Management Board, comprising the Permanent Secretary, the Finance Director and the executive and non-executive directors, is the strategy and policy board for the Office.