Culture of Fear Blamed for Crisis in Britain’s Statistics Agency

A crisis around Britain’s employment statistics has been blamed on funding constraints, a lack of modernization and staff being afraid to raise problems, according to official documents and people familiar with the situation.

Workers at the Office for National Statistics had concerns for their “psychological safety” and were reluctant to raise issues with bosses, an internal review found. The study was undertaken in the summer and discussed in minutes for a meeting of the UK Statistical Authority, published last month.