UK Government Draws Fire Over 1-Year Delay Naming ONS Chief

Q: Is a plan to split the ONS's top job causing the year-long delay in finding its new chief?

There is no firm evidence that the proposed split of the ONS’s top job is what has caused the year-long delay, though it may be part of the backdrop. What is clear is that Penny Young says the recruitment process for a new National Statistician has “moved slowly at each stage,” and that the vacancy has now lasted more than a year since Ian Diamond resigned. She links that delay directly to the difficulty of rebuilding confidence in UK economic data after repeated errors. The strongest relevant evidence is Sir Robert Devereux’s 2025 review, which recommended separating the National Statistician role from the ONS permanent secretary role. That recommendation has influenced the ONS reset and current leadership structure, with Darren Tierney handling day-to-day operations as permanent secretary while an acting National Statistician is in place. But the available reporting does not show that ministers or officials have said the split itself is the reason the appointment has stalled. No official explanation in the material provided ties the delay directly to that restructuring plan. So the most accurate answer is that the split-role proposal is a plausible complicating factor, because it changes the shape of the leadership job, but it has not been demonstrated to be the cause of the delay. The confirmed facts are the prolonged vacancy, Young’s frustration with the government’s slow process, and the urgency of appointing a permanent chief to restore trust in the ONS.

1 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · Jul 2

More than a year after Ian Diamond resigned, Britain still has no permanent Office for National Statistics chief, prompting fresh criticism of the government’s handling of the appointment.
Penny Young, interim chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said the search has “moved slowly at each stage,” leaving the agency without a leader to tackle a crisis of confidence in economic data.
The delay follows a string of errors under the previous leadership, with the unresolved vacancy now adding to concerns about the credibility of official UK statistics.