Helen Boaden has been appointed as a non-executive board member of the UK Statistics Authority.

Helen Boaden

Helen Boaden has spent much of her career at the BBC, where she joined as a reporter in local radio and ended as the BBC Executive Board as its Director of Radio. In her role as Director of BBC Radio, Ms Boaden was responsible for the strategic performance and operational delivery of all ten BBC Network Radio Stations on air, online and through social media. Since leaving the BBC, she has pursued her interest in the intersection between press, politics and public policy, at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. She also sits as a non-executive on several Boards.

Helen has been appointed by the Minister for the Cabinet Office under the provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, for a period of three years, from 1 June 2019 until 31 May 2022.

Minister for the Constitution, Kevin Foster, said:

I am delighted to welcome Helen to the UK Statistics Authority Board.

Helen will be a valuable addition to the UK Statistics Authority Board, particularly in overseeing the delivery of effective communications ahead of the 2021 Census, and in improving the communication of official statisticsmore broadly.

Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir David Norgrove, said:

I am delighted to welcome Helen Boaden as a non-executive member of the UK Statistics Authority Board. Helen brings with her a wealth of professional experience in communications and journalism, which will be invaluable to us all at the UK Statistics Authority. I am very much looking forward to working with Helen.

Helen said:

The independence and professionalism of the Statistics Authority and ONS are admired around the world and their work is vital to the health of our democracy. I am delighted and honoured to be appointed to the Boardand look forward to helping with the challenges ahead.

Further information

The UK Statistics Authority’s statutory objective is to promote and safeguard theproduction and publication of official statistics that serve the public good. It is also required to promote and safeguard the quality and comprehensiveness of official statistics, and ensure good practice in relation to official statistics.

The authority’s functions relate to its statutory areas of responsibility including:

  • oversight of the UK official statistics system, which includes around 30 central government departments and the devolved administrations, and the promotion, safeguarding and monitoring of quality, comprehensiveness and good practice in relation to all official statistics, wherever produced;
  • production of a code of practice for statistics and assessment of official statistics against the code; and
  • governance of the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s national statistical institute and the largest producer of official statistics.

Published 30 May 2019