ONS have begun consultation to prioritise its products, to help it decide where to make the 17.4% cuts demanded by government in the period 2010/11 to 2014/15. The consultation ends on 24^th December and includes a London meeting organised by the Statistics User Forum on 23^rd November. ONS proposes prioritising: statutory requirements including those of the EU, quality of continuing products, IT infrastructure to deliver products; and reducing the frequency or cutting completely other products for which least demand can be demonstrated.

This consultation refers to ONS outputs. Welsh and Scottish devolved administrations will declare their own expenditure reductions around the 17th November.

The 2011 Census is safeguarded. A ‘Beyond 2011’ project will examine ways of replacing the Census, which the government minister Francis Maude and the statistics authority have declared too difficult and costly: the intention is that 2011 will be ‘the last of its kind’.