Research and development services and related consultancy services

Tender description

The Authority has commissioned a PCOS survey every 2 years since 2014. The Authority wish to undertake an additional survey in 2019 to understand the impact of EU Exit on public confidence in official statistics using the same supplier and methodology as in the previous surveys. Measuring public confidence in official statistics is a key piece of insight for the Authority and to ensure consistency and comparability it is essential that the methodology used to undertake this specific additional survey is the same as in previous years. The current supplier can include the PCOS questionnaire on its British Social Attitudes survey, used in the previous 3 iterations and meets the timescales required by the Authority. The comparability would be robust, and ONS would be confident that any effect on public confidence could be detected. The PCOS survey explores levels of awareness, use of, and trust in official statistics in Britain. It also explores changes in attitudes to official statistics over time, compares the views of the general public in Britain with the public in other countries and quantifies regular users of official statistics in the UK. The questionnaire for the survey is based on the OECD internationally harmonised questionnaire. The OECD states the field work for the survey should not carried out by the country's National Statistics Institute, but rather is conducted by a suitable independent survey company. It is therefore not appropriate for the questions to be included on an ONS survey. The survey provides the Authority with one of its Key Performance Indicators (KPI) under the “Helpful” section of the authority business plan; namely the public confidence in official statistics rating. It is a key metric for the Authority to demonstrate its effectiveness to the legislatures to which it is accountable. In proposing a 2019 survey we are responding to particular interest in the impact of Brexit on public confidence in official statistics, triggered by the publication of the 2018 results. Under a range of scenarios, Brexit may occur in 2019 and an irregular 2019 survey would help the Authority understand the impact of EU Exit on public confidence in official statistics. A headline report is required that includes: — awareness of ONS, the UK Statistics Authority and participation in and use of official statistics, — trust in ONS and in official statistics, — general attitudes to official statistics, including perceptions of their accuracy, their use by government and the media, whether or not they are seen as free from political interference, and views about their release, — attitudes to specific statistical series, including the census, consumer price index, employment and unemployment statistics, gross domestic product and crime statistics, — variations in attitudes to official statistics by gender, age, education and socio-economic class, and — comparisons between the views of the general public and the views of regular users of statistics. In addition, a technical report setting out detailed responses and methodology is required.