ONS Confirms It Does Not Sell to the Public and Asks Selected Households to Take Part in Surveys

The ONS posted the message to clarify its role after being selected to take part in a survey can prompt questions about who is asking and why. The body describes itself as the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and says it reports through the UK Statistics Authority to Parliament and the devolved governments — not to ministers.

Meanwhile, the figures show the scale of the operation: the ONS publishes more than 600 statistical releases a year, covering everything from GDP and labour market data to births, deaths and migration. It also runs the census in England and Wales every ten years.

So what does this mean for Kent households?

Residents across the county may be selected for ONS surveys because the body collects data at national, regional and local level. That data feeds directly into decisions on housing need, school places and NHS planning — the kind of decisions Kent councils and public services make regularly. There’s no Kent-specific programme mentioned in the post, but the indirect effect on local planning is real.

The ONS says its statistics are used to inform citizens, Parliament and political assemblies about the state of the nation and the impact of policies. Its public-facing communications describe it as a public body producing statistics for the public good. The claim in the tweet that it will “never try to sell you anything” is consistent with that role, though it is a social-media communications statement rather than a formal statutory guarantee.

At the same time, the ONS is overseen by the Office for Statistics Regulation, which is designed to keep official statistics independent of political control and to maintain public trust in how data are collected and used.