Research and analysis

Findings from 2022/23 user research

Published 22 November 2023

User research summary

In 2022, we completed some user research as part of our commitment to providing statistics that best meet user needs. Our contractor ran 2 surveys - 1 for internal users and 1 for external users - and hosted a series of online focus groups. 

There are 3 pillars of the Code of Practice for Statistics: trustworthiness, quality and value. This exercise focussed on the third pillar, value, which says that statistics must support society’s need for information. This really matters to us, and we are grateful to all users who engaged with the work.

In summary, we heard that:

1. Our statistics are used in a wide range of ways. We believe that the deeper our knowledge about who uses our statistics and what they use them for is, the better job we can do tailoring our outputs to our users. We heard about varied uses including developing business cases, writing academic papers, preparing briefing and monitoring department’s performance.
   
2. There would be an impact of stopping publication of any of our portfolio. We asked users about the consequence of stopping each of our publications, and all of these had an impact for some of our stakeholder base. Looking at this another way, we’re concluding that there is value in all of our current publications. While we don’t plan to make any fundamental changes immediately, we know that requirements change over time. Wherever possible, we’ll engage with users before making any significant changes to the portfolio.
   
3. Users have ideas for improvement, which we are feeding into our workplans. We asked about challenges and suggestions for improvement. We received a range of ideas from increasing geographic granularity to developing definitions. We have reviewed all the feedback we received and, while we can’t do everything, we aim to continually improve our statistics. We always welcome feedback and are grateful for the time users took during this project and elsewhere to set out current challenges and suggestions for improvements. 

We don’t see user engagement as a one-off exercise. There’s always more we can learn about how our statistics are used, and we always welcome feedback from users on how well our statistics are meeting their needs. We are considering setting up a DCMS Statistics User Group to help us better keep in touch. Please let us know if you have any feedback on this idea by emailing us on evidence@dcms.gov.uk. We will then do a formal call out for this in 2024. 

A note about methodology

1. This research was carried out before the machinery of government change in early 2023, which saw responsibility for digital move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. 
2. We provided the contractor with a list of internal stakeholders to complement the callout for external stakeholders that the contractor put out on gov.uk. Views were gathered through focus groups, and internal and external surveys. The 2 approaches enabled us to gather the opinions of over 60 end-users. 
3. Stakeholders were asked about their use of our different statistics, including frequency, challenges and suggested improvements, and about the impact of stopping any statistics.