Ed Humpherson

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Ed Humpherson

CB FAcSS
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Born
Edward Allen Humpherson

(1970-06-02) June 2, 1970 (age 56)
OccupationRegulator
Years active1993–
Head of Assessment
UK Statistics Authority (UKSA)
Assumed office
January 2014[1]
UKSA ChairAndrew Dilnot
David Norgrove
Robert Chote
Penny Young (acting)
Preceded byRichard Aldritt
Websiteosr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk

Edward Allen "Ed" Humpherson CB FAcSS (born 2 June 1970)[2] is a British public servant and chartered accountant[3] who has been director general of the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) since 2014.[4] He is known for regulatory impact, intelligent transparency and government accountability, particularly to parliament.

Early career

Previously Humpherson was executive leader responsible for economic affairs and assistant auditor general of the UK National Audit Office (NAO).[5] He studied at the University of Edinburgh and joined the NAO in 1993. There he had audit oversight of the introduction of regulatory impact assessment.[6][7]

Statistics regulator

Humpherson's is the independent statutory role 'head of assessment' in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 which also makes him an executive member of the board of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA).[8][9] Since 2014, he has been responsible for leading the independent assessment of statistics produced by the UK government and used by other public bodies. In his role he is known as director general for regulation and he has promoted the code of practice for statistics as three pillars: trustworthiness, quality and value or TQV.[10][11] His regulatory role has developed to challenge government to be transparent in the use of evidence and publish statistics to support statements of policy,[12] an approach OSR call intelligent transparency.[13][14]

Humpherson is also empowered to comment on erroneous interpretation or misuse of statistics by the UK govenment, in line with the fourth of the fundamental principles of official statistics.[15][16] This is usually in the form of letters sent to other public officials (ministers are addressed by the chair of UKSA),[17] for example:

  • In 2025, he sent "a strongly-worded letter" to require the publication of a review by the Scottish Government about a survey of children in schools about their sexual experiences.[18]
  • And in 2022, his letter expressing disappointment the then prime minister Boris Johnson incorrectly referred "to payroll employment as if describing total employment" repeatedly was raised as a point of order by another MP.[19]

He also made a witness statement to module 2 of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry describing where he had intervened to challenge use of statistics in the pandemic and require data supporting government policy to be published, as well as lessons learned,[20] including writing to Patrick Vallance that “use of data has not always been supported by transparent information being provided in a timely manner”.[3]

Periodically, Humpherson appears in parliament to give evidence on his responsibilities to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC)[13] and occasionally attends other select committees, typically when questions independent measurement are raised such as child poverty.[21] Following the publication of the 2025 review of the Office for National Statistics by Sir Robert Devereux,[22] he appeared in two parliamentary hearings alongside the UKSA chair, Sir Robert Chote, and acting National Statistician, Emma Rourke.[23] In the concluding question of the PACAC session on 1st July 2025, the committee chair Simon Hoare MP addressed him directly:

Mr Humpherson, you and I have met on a few occasions and you strike me as a man of integrity and the utmost probity.[24]

Recognition

In 2019, Humpherson gave the annual lecture at the Centre for Science and Policy in Cambridge, on the topic of 'how to stop bad data driving out the good'.[25] He gave one of the keynote addresses at the World Statistics Congress in the Hague in 2025[26][27] on the topic of risk and vulnerability and has also written about the broader concept of risk in official statistical uncertainty.[28] And he is a member of the advisory board of the Regulatory Policy Institute,[29] at whose conference he gave the annual Zeeman lecture in 2021.[30]

In the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2022, he was made a companion of the Order of the Bath for public service and in 2025 he was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.[31] In 2026 he was awarded honorary fellowship of the Market Research Society.[32]

He is vice chair of the Motability Foundation[33] and a trustee of pro bono economics;[34] he is a member of the oversight board of the Ada Lovelace Institute[35] as well as being a member of the programme delivery board of administrative data research (ADR) UK.[36] and of the advisory group of the Science Media Centre in London.[37]

Personal life

Humpherson's father William and grandfather Victor were dentists, the latter chairing the Dental Estimates Board of the Department of Health.[38] He is married with three children and lives in London.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Appointment of the Head of Assessment" (PDF). 2013-10-08. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-29.
  2. ↑ "Humpherson, Edward Allen". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Shaping the public's trust in data and information". ICAEW. 2021-04-30.
  4. ↑ "Ed Humpherson". Office for Statistics Regulation.
  5. ↑ "Ed Humpherson Biography". Motability Foundation.
  6. ↑ Ed Humpherson (2007). "Auditing Regulatory Impact Assessment: UK Experience". In Colin Kirkpatrick; David Parker (eds.). Regulatory Impact Assessment. Edward Elgar.
  7. ↑ Ed Humpherson (2004). "The National Audit Office's Evaluation of RIAs: Reflections on the Pilot Year". Public Money & Management. 24 (5): 277–282. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9302.2004.00434.x.
  8. ↑ "Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007". The National Archives. section 33.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "The Board". UK Statistics Authority.
  10. ↑ Philippa Lamb (2022-06-08). "Transcript: Data, Devolution and Levelling Up". ICAEW.
  11. ↑ Ed Humpherson (2019). "Trustworthiness, quality, and value: The regulation of official statistics in a post-truth age". In Sander van der Linden; Ragnar E. Löfstedt (eds.). Risk and Uncertainty in a Post-Truth Society. Routledge.
  12. ↑ Jim Dunton (2024-02-09). "Departments' data-transparency fails to match perm secs' pledges, watchdog says". Civil Service World.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Public Administration and Consitutional Affairs Committee (2024). "Transforming the UK's Evidence Base". House of Commons. para 81-93.
  14. ↑ Ed Humpherson; Simon Baugh (2025-01-06). "Growing public trust in statistics through collaborative communication and intelligent transparency". Government Analysis Function.
  15. ↑ "Fundamental Principles of National Official Statistics". United Nations Statistics Division. 2014.
  16. ↑ Why Preventing the Misuse of Statistics Matters. UK Statistics Authority.
  17. ↑ Cristina Marinho; Michael Billig (2023). "Preventing the political manipulation of Covid-19 statistics: The importance of going beyond diplomatic language". Language in Society. 52 (5).
  18. ↑ Katy McClosky (2025-02-17). "Review of school sex survey to be published". BBC.
  19. ↑ Reality Check Team (2022-02-07). "Boris Johnson makes incorrect claim on jobs". BBC.
  20. ↑ "Witness Statement of Ed Humpherson" (PDF). UK Covid-19 Inquiry. 2023.
  21. ↑ Work and Pensions Select Committee (2021). "Children in poverty: Measurement and targets". House of Commons.
  22. ↑ "Independent Review by Sir Robert Devereux KCB, June 2025".
  23. ↑ Delphine Strauss; Valentina Romei (2025-07-01). "Former ONS head was allowed to act 'without check or balance', says senior MP". Financial Times.
  24. ↑ "Oral evidence: The work of the UK Statistics Authority, HC 847". Q89.
  25. ↑ "CSaP Annual Lecture 2019: How to stop bad data driving out the good in an age of misuse, misleadingness and misinformation". Centre for Science and Policy. 2019-03-04.
  26. ↑ "keynote speaker Ed Humpherson". International Statistical Institute.
  27. ↑ "How official statistics producers need to embrace vulnerability in a time of crisis". Office for Statistics Regulation. 17 November 2025.
  28. ↑ Ed Humpherson (2024). "Uncertainty in Official Statistics". Journal of Risk Research: 1–11. doi:10.1080/13669877.2024.2360920.
  29. ↑ "About". Regulatoy Policy Institute.
  30. ↑ "RPI Annual Competition and Regulation Conference 2021: Rethinking Regulation". Regulatory Policy Institute. 2021.
  31. ↑ "The Academy of Social Sciences welcomes 63 leading social scientists to its Fellowship this autumn". Academy of Social Sciences. 2025.
  32. ↑ "MRS Celebrates 16 New Honorary Fellows for 80th Anniversary". Market Research Society. 2026-07-07.
  33. ↑ "Motability appoints Ed Humpherson as new vice chairman". Motability. 2021.
  34. ↑ "our governance". pro bono economics.
  35. ↑ "New Oversight Board members appointed to the Ada Lovelace Institute". Ada Lovelace Institute. 2026-02-13.
  36. ↑ "Our Governance". ADR UK.
  37. ↑ "governance". Science Media Centre.
  38. ↑ Stanley Gelbier (2025). "Victor William (1896–1978) and William Allen (1932–2010) Humpherson". British Dental Journal. 238.

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