RSSeNEWS to be determined...

It has been announced that Stephen Penneck has been appointed as the new Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The appointment has been approved by the Prime Minister and Mr Penneck will take up the appointment next week.

Stephen Penneck is currently Director of Methodology at ONS and has been with the organisation for most of his working life. He has wide experience of official statistics working largely with economic statistics but also as Director of Surveys and Administrative Sources.

"I am delighted to be taking on this responsibility. I look forward to continuing to work with everybody in ONS to make ONS the place people turn to first for statistics about our society", said Mr Penneck.

The Director General role has been created following restructuring after the appointment of Jil Matheson as National Statistician in September. Mr Penneck will be responsible for day-to-day management of ONS. He will report directly to the National Statistician but also, on ONS matters, to the UK Statistics Authority Board through the ONS Board, which is chaired by Lord Rowe-Beddoe.

The focus of the National Statistician’s work is on overseeing the Government Statistical Service (GSS) which includes ONS and official statistics as a whole.

Jil Matheson said: "I look forward to working with Stephen to maximise the potential of ONS, reinforce its world-leading credentials and further improve its value to society."