Royal Statistical Society Royal Statistical Society RSS

President and Vice-presidents

• President: Andrew Garrett, Icon plc
• Vice-president for Professional Affairs: Clare Morris
• Vice-president for External Affairs: Christl Donnelly, University of Oxford
• Vice-president for Academic Affairs: Richard Samworth, University of Cambridge
• Vice-president for Education and Statistical Literacy: Sophie Carr, Bays Consulting

About the Society

We are one of the world’s leading organisations to promote the importance of statistics and data, and have done so since we were founded in 1834. We’re a professional body for all statisticians and data analysts – wherever they may live. We have more than 10,000 members in the UK and across the world. They are at the core of what we do and make us who we are.

As a charity, we advocate the key role of statistics and data in society, and we work to ensure that policy formulation and decision making are informed by evidence for the public good.

News from the Society

As part of the RSS Statistics Under Pressure initiative, which explores how statisticians must balance competing demands to feed data into decision-making, the RSS have published a set of five key principles. The principles have been designed to empower statisticians and analysts in confidently making trade-offs when informing decision making in high pressure scenarios. These five key considerations have been gleaned from the eight case studies we published earlier in the year, exploring specific scenarios in which data was used to inform decision-making at pace – covering topics ranging from badger culling to economics to health. The principles can serve as a useful checklist of factors to consider and reflect on in future work. We also hope these principles can be helpful in instances when certain trade-offs may not be suitable – to help reach this conclusion and explain why. 

The five detailed principles include lists of questions that should be considered when making trade-offs, with the basic tenets of: 1. Understand output purpose and stakeholder needs, 2. Prioritisation with justification, 3.  Risk mitigation, 4. Transparent and accessible communication, 5.  Monitor and adapt.

Alongside developing further case studies to illustrate how the themes picked out to date are applicable in a wide range of areas, we will be developing policy recommendations to help ensure that government is set up to allow data and statistics to efficiently and effectively inform decision-making in fast-paced situations.

More details on the project, the eight case studies and the principles can be found on the Statistics Under Pressure web pages. (link)

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The first-ever UK Statistics Assembly was held in January 2025, with around 550 attendees in-person and online. The UK Statistics Authority delivered it in partnership with the Royal Statistical Society. Available is the perspective on the event from Scott Heald, RSS Vice-President for External Affairs and Director of Data and Digital Innovation, Public Health Scotland, and can be read here.