{"id":68707,"date":"2016-03-17T15:13:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=eea30ec0dbb95d6e32b919f935dce58c"},"modified":"2016-03-17T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:13:11","slug":"press-release-17-million-investment-to-make-wales-a-global-leader-in-statistics-and-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=68707","title":{"rendered":"Press release: \u00a317 million investment to make Wales a global leader in statistics and data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>In this week\u2019s budget, the government announced funding of over \u00a310 million for the ground-breaking project that will modernise the <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\">Office for National Statistics (<abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr>)<\/a> to produce more innovative, precise and timely statistics. <\/p>\n<p>This will be part of an overall \u00a317 million investment, which includes additional <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> funding.<\/p>\n<p>Based at <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> in Newport, the new Data Science Campus and Economics Centre of Excellence will create at least 30 highly skilled roles. It will build new technology skills within the existing regional workforce, propelling the UK forward as a global leader for data and statistics.<\/p>\n<p>The centre will focus on using techniques to change the way we manage and use data through cutting edge techniques such as web scraping. This will provide unique and real time monitoring of the economy and UK labour market directly from public and private sources.<\/p>\n<p>The Economics Centre of Excellence will improve capability to measure the changes in the UK\u2019s digital economy, pushing the frontiers of economic measurement globally.<\/p>\n<p>The move to invest in <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> in Wales comes as the government responds to Professor Sir Charles Bean\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/independent-review-of-uk-economic-statistics-final-report\">Independent Review of UK Economic Statistics (<abbr title=\"Independent Review of UK Economic Statistics\">IRES<\/abbr>)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Independent Review of UK Economic Statistics\">IRES<\/abbr> outlined a series of recommendations to enable <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> to develop world-leading analytical and digital capabilities in economic measurement and \u2018future proof\u2019 the production of the UK\u2019s economic statistics.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the points outlined by <abbr title=\"Independent Review of UK Economic Statistics\">IRES<\/abbr> outlined that the <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> must:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>push the boundaries and further develop its statistics<\/li>\n<li>enforce a customer orientated culture <\/li>\n<li>make full use of administrative data already held by government<\/li>\n<li>strengthen statistical governance in line with Professor Sir Charles Bean\u2019s strategic recommendations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The government also welcomed the creation of an Independent Regulation and Evaluation Office to support  better governance of <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> statistics. This new body will be charged with publicly assessing both the trustworthiness and quality of official statistics, as well as <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr>\u2019s effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during a visit to the <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> on Thursday March 17, Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Data is the fuel on which we can make the best and strongest decisions for the public. The very best policies and services are developed around information that\u2019s current, relevant and accessible.<\/p>\n<p>Official statistics shine a light on how our economy is performing, but by doing so inform policy decisions of government and businesses which affect the lives of millions of people across the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">My announcement today firmly underlines our commitment for the <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> to stay in Newport. These ambitious plans will help the <abbr title=\"The Office of National Statistics\">ONS<\/abbr> rise to the challenge of an increasingly technological economy and make sure the UK is a global leader.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Ensuring UK economic statistics are at the cutting edge is an important issue that not only informs the decisions I make as Chancellor, but one that affects businesses and households across the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">That\u2019s why last year Matt Hancock and I asked Professor Bean to consider how we can best achieve world-class statistics here in the UK. Now thanks to his authoritative analysis we\u2019re in a better position to tackle the global challenge of measuring a modern economy and I\u2019m pleased that new funding announced at Budget will help ensure UK statistics are fit for the future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Wales Office Minister Alun Cairns said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>This announcement is a vote of confidence in Newport and Welsh expertise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Wales is developing an international reputation as a centre for innovation in technology, and the new data science hub will be a fantastic enhancement to that. The UK government and Wales Office is determined to play its part in building on that excellence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock has unveiled new plans to create a world-class data science hub in Wales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}