Public Service Productivity Statistics User Survey 2025

Following on from the National Statistician’s Independent Review of the Measurement of Public Services Productivity, we are looking at how the ONS’s publications on public service productivity can be more coherent. This includes how they can fit better with other productivity publications, given user interest in being able to compare with whole economy and market sector productivity.   

Between 8 January and 19 February 2025, we ran a survey to gather feedback from users on ONS’s public service productivity publications. This survey enabled us to gather insights on how the publications are used, which aspects are most important to users, and where improvements could be made.  

We received 24 responses to the survey which consisted of: 

• 12 responses from central and devolved governments 

• 4 responses from think tanks and academia 

• 2 responses from local government 

• 2 responses from arm’s length bodies and other public sector organisations 

• 1 response from an individual 

• 3 responses with no sector specified 

The respondents most commonly use ONS’s public service productivity publications for work purposes, but the publications are also used for personal use. Ways in which the publications are used include: 

• to inform policy development and analysis 

• to inform academic analysis 

• to understand broad trends and provide context to the feasibility of future productivity plans  

• to try to understand potential ways to improve productivity 

• to form a view as a taxpayer on whether public services are effective and efficient 

The survey indicated that there is generally a good level of satisfaction with the public service productivity publications, but respondents did make some suggestions as to how satisfaction could be improved.  

Most respondents were moderately to fairly confident that they understand the differences between the public service productivity publications and know which publications meet their needs. However, some respondents were somewhat unsure or very unsure about the differences between the publications and which meets their needs. 

Some respondents said they find it difficult or very difficult to find what they are looking for in the publications. Most of these reported either reading the whole article or scrolling through until they find what they are looking for. The survey also highlighted that the publications are generally easily understood, but there is scope to improve ease of understanding. 

Although more respondents were interested in overall productivity than the individual elements (inputs, output and quality adjusted output), the majority of respondents were interested in all elements of productivity. Service area breakdowns are more important to respondents than timely estimates and quality adjusted output; long term trends are the least important. 

The majority of respondents were also interested in other types of productivity, but only around half were aware of the ONS’s other productivity publications, such as Annual multi-factor productivity, market sector, UK.  Although the majority of respondents are moderately to very confident that they understand the differences between public service productivity and other productivity measures, some respondents are unsure about the differences.  

The survey has highlighted that the key areas of focus for improvement should be: 

• understanding of differences between the different public service productivity publications 

• better navigation and making it easier for people to find what they’re looking for 

• ease of understanding 

• clearer links to other ONS productivity publications 

We will use the findings from the survey to inform follow-up discussions with some users to explore the themes identified in more detail. This more in-depth engagement will enable us to identify specific improvements that can be implemented to optimise the purpose of each publication and the relationships between them, to improve the clarity of the overall narrative.  

We will also consider how work to improve the user experience on the ONS website could help to address some of the issues identified during our user engagement. We aim to implement some initial changes into our quarterly public service productivity publication in autumn 2025, with further changes made for our next annual publication in spring 2026.   

We would like to thank everyone who took part in the survey and provided us with valuable feedback that will guide improvements to the public service productivity publications.