John Pullinger

Biography

John Pullinger was the UK National Statistician, Head of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority from July 2014 to June 2019.

Early career

John started his career as an assistant statistician at the Department of Trade and Industry. He then moved to the Department of the Environment, responsible for statistics on local government revenues.

Following this he took up a post at the Office of Manpower Economics, heading the pay research team.

In 1992, John Pullinger became Director of Policy and Planning at the Central Statistical Office and led the creation of the Office for National Statistics.

Office for National Statistics

John later became a member of the ONS management board. He was actively involved in the development of statistical governance, which led to the creation of the Statistics Commission in 2000.

Librarian of the House of Commons

In 2004, John became the 14th Librarian of the House of Commons. John has chaired a number of advisory boards on economic and statistical issues.

Honours

John was appointed as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2014 New Year’s Honours list for statistical services to Parliament and for his community work as chairman of Great Culverden Park Ltd.

Previous roles in government

  • UK National Statistician