We are pleased to announce that ONS and the UK Data Service will be jointly hosting a data impact and networking event on the evening of 1 February 2018.

The UK is facing a multitude of social and economic challenges from Brexit to the desire to create a fairer society served by efficient and affordable public services. Understanding and evaluating the impact of change will be critical to those needing to make informed decisions regarding the UK economy, society and people’s quality of life. Therefore, our event will explore and recognise examples of where the use of research data is already delivering a public benefit and will also explore opportunities to encourage innovative use of these data.

Hosted by Sarah Henry and Matthew Woollard, a panel of data experts will explore how we embrace the data revolution to respond to the social and economic challenges facing the UK.

There will be presentations on the findings and impact from recent research carried out using ONS research data. These are: Resolution Foundation analysis on the Policy effects of the National Living Wage on Low Pay; Tech City UK research on the Size, scope, dynamics and geographic clusters of Digital Tech activity in the UK; and CBI research on the Drivers of Productivity across the UK's Nations and Regions.

Sarah Henry, ONS

Sarah joined the Office for National Statistics in 2017 from Manchester City Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. At ONS she is the Director of Methods, Data and Research and leads the office’s strategy to bring in datasets, prepare them for the production of statistics and make them available for research inside and outside the office.

Matthew Woollard, the UK Data Service

Matthew is the Director of the UK Data Service. He provides strategic direction for the Service and leads on data curation, archiving and preservation activities.

Panel chair:

Robert Cuffe, BBC

Robert Cuffe is the Head of Statistics at the BBC. Before joining the BBC, he was head of statistics at ViiV Healthcare, a pharmaceutical company, and chair of the UK pharmaceutical statistics industry body, PSI. He sits on the Professional Affairs Committee of the Royal Statistical Society and worked with the Science Media Centre to found a statistical briefing service on health stories for the lay media.

Confirmed panelists:

Rebecca Riley, ESCoE

Rebecca Riley is Director of the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE), an independent research centre funded by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) and based at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) in London.

Rebecca’s research interests include employment, productivity, the UK economy and policy evaluation. She has 20 years of experience as an applied economist using economic statistics and other data to contribute to the UK economics discourse. She has led numerous research projects for government departments and funding councils. She led NIESR’s UK economy forecast for a number of years and more recently the NIESR’s productivity group. Rebecca has also acted as an external advisor to UK Trade & Investment, the Department for Work and Pensions and the ONS.

She is affiliated with the Centre for Macroeconomics and the Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies. Her research is published in peer reviewed journals, including the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society and the Economic Journal.

Ben Jupp, Social Finance

Ben Jupp is a Director at Social Finance. He leads Social Finance’s health and social care practice.

Social Finance is one of the foremost social investment intermediaries in the UK, arranging investment into a range of social enterprises and projects that respond to a range of social needs. Using administrative data to understand the needs of vulnerable groups and support the development and management of services is a core part of the work of the team.

Prior to joining Social Finance in 2011, Ben was Director of Public Services Strategy and Innovation in the UK Cabinet Office. In that role Ben was the chief adviser on public services to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Prime Minister’s office. His work included the development of new performance systems for public services in the UK and supporting innovation in public services.

Ben was previously also Director of the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office.

Ben started his career as a manager in the National Health Service, and has also led policy and practice to improve health, welfare, urban regeneration and the criminal justice system in number of public and non-for-profit organisations.

Emma Rourke, ONS

Emma Rourke is currently director of public policy analysis, joining the UK Office of National Statistics in November 2016. Emma's portfolio spans a range of analysis, informing the public about social, economic and environmental matters, assisting in the development and evaluation of public policy and promoting high quality of statistics.

Emma is leading a programme of change to meet the needs of a diverse range of customers in central and local government, promote our work internationally and develop strong relationships so our analysis is relevant to domestic and international political discourse. Emma's professional background is in healthcare clinical practice, policy and analytics; her previous role was Director of Intelligence at the regulatory body, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) where she developed a strategic plan to create an intelligence-driven regulator. This included the development of a risk model to prioritise operational activity.

Prior to that, Emma held various analytical and policy development roles in the CQC and its predecessor body, the Healthcare Commission.

Confirmed presenters:

Dr. George Windsor, Tech City UK

George is leading on research and insights at Tech City UK, as Senior Insights Manager. As well as the Tech Nation report, Tech City UK are conducting insights work on tech talent, skills and mapping emerging tech activity. Before Tech City UK George was a Senior Policy Researcher in the Creative Economy and Data Analytics team at Nesta, working on creative and tech clusters, infrastructure, education and skills. Before joining Nesta, George was a PhD researcher at Loughborough University, sponsored by immigration specialist law firm, Paragon Law Ltd., where he looked at highly skilled migration and the promotion of entrepreneurship in the UK.

Conor D'Arcy, Resolution Foundation

Conor joined the Resolution Foundation in September 2013. His work focuses on a range of labour market issues including the minimum wage, self-employment, pay progression and zero-hours contracts. Prior to that, he worked for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and for an MP. He studied sociology and English literature at Trinity College Dublin and has a master’s in social policy from the London School of Economics.

Anna Leach, Confederation of British Industry (CBI)

Anna has been a professional economist for 16 years, with experience in global macroeconomics, public finances, survey analysis and labour market economics in the CBI and Government Economic Service. She has worked at the CBI since 2008, and heads the economic intelligence team, combining information from the CBI’s surveys of business conditions, official data and the on-the-ground experience of CBI members into a coherent picture of the UK and global economies.