Draft:Ed Humpherson
British administrator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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June 2, 1970
David Norgrove
Robert Chote
Penny Young (acting)
Ed Humpherson CB FAcSS | |
|---|---|
 Humpherson in 2022 | |
| Born | Edward Allen Humpherson June 2, 1970 |
| Occupation | Regulator |
| Years active | 1993– |
| Head of Assessment UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) | |
| Assumed office January 2014[1] | |
| UKSA Chair | Andrew Dilnot David Norgrove Robert Chote Penny Young (acting) |
| Preceded by | Richard Aldritt |
| Website | osr |
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), 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.[17]
- 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.[18]
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,[19] 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.[20] Following the publication of the 2025 review of the Office for National Statistics by Sir Robert Devereux,[21] he appeared in two parliamentary hearings alongside the UKSA chair, Sir Robert Chote, and acting National Statistician, Emma Rourke.[22] 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.[23]
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'.[24] He gave one of the keynote addresses at the World Statistics Congress in the Hague in 2025[25][26] on the topic of risk and vulnerability and has also written about the broader concept of risk in official statistical uncertainty.[27] And he is a member of the advisory board of the Regulatory Policy Institute,[28] at whose conference he gave the annual Zeeman lecture in 2021,[29] as well as being a member of the programme delivery board of administrative data research (ADR) UK.[30]
Public service
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] He is vice chair of the Motability Foundation[32] and a trustee of pro bono economics;[33] he is a member of the oversight board of the Ada Lovelace Institute[34] and of the advisory group of the Science Media Centre in London.[35]