Zur Person:
Professor Denise Lievesley is an Honorary Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, having been its Principal from 2015 until September 2020.
Before the appointment in Oxford, she was Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Public Policy and Professor of Social Statistics at King's College London. Formerly she has been Chief Executive of the English Health and Social Care Information Centre, Director of Statistics at UNESCO, where she founded the Institute for Statistics, and Director (1991-1997) of the UK Data Archive.
Denise served as President of the Royal Statistical Society (1999 - 2001), and as President of the International Statistical Institute (2007 - 2009) and the International Association for Official Statistics (1995 - 1997).
A Fellow of University College London (her alma mater), she has honorary doctorates from City University and the University of Essex and is a founding Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Her research interests relate broadly to the quality and trust in official data, and the use of data for research purposes. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2014 for services to social science.
In June this year Denise was appointed by the UK Government to lead a review of the UK Statistics Authority.
Und darum geht es (Abstract):
The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) was established with a statutory objective to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that ‘serve the public good’. The main part of the UKSA is the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics on a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. The UKSA also contains a regulatory function called the Office for Statistics Regulation which aims to increase public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics.
Denise has been asked to review the UKSA to establish that it remains useful and necessary. The purpose of such a review is to provide independent challenges to ensure that the UKSA is effectively delivering services that meet the needs of citizens; that they are doing so as efficiently as possible; and that they have clear governance and lines of accountability. In this paper she will outline the approach she is taking to consult a wide group of stakeholders, both within and outside government, to hear their opinions and experiences. Of especial interest is whether high quality, respected official statistics are provided to support the government to manage the economy, drive growth, productivity and Government efficiency, and informing international trade policy, given the UKSA’s underpinning remit is to promote statistics for the public good.
Although the Review is not yet complete Denise will be able to share some of her thoughts and will use the opportunity of the German colloquium to put the UK system in a broader international context. The ONS has counterparts in other countries, whereas the Office for Statistics Regulation is more unusual and its role may be of particular interest to those of us concerned with ensuring the integrity of official statistics.