Provision of a Strategic Internal Audit Co-Source - AWARD

The UK Statistics Authority is at the peak of its transformation programme and the external environment in which it has been operating is changing fast. There are increasing demands on the Authority arising from Brexit and other policy imperatives, and these changes affect the ability to gather and control data, and the digital environment.

This means that the Authority has needed to increase the pace of its transformation and make choices on priorities. The Office for National Statistics is in the process of delivering an ambitious programme for the 2021 Census; transforming economic statistics; and changing its approach to technology and data governance.

New areas of business have also been added, which have increased their impact during the year. These include the Data Science Campus; the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence; and its Data as a Service function.

The organisation's technical transformation and the Digital Economy Act mean that it is now able to drive increased automation in the production of statistics and use new data sources. Together, these changes have increased the scope of the organisation and added risks to its reputation, delivery, information security and data management processes.

The Internal Audit team provides assurance on the activities of the UK Statistics Authority and its executive arm, the Office for National Statistics. It has operated as an in-house internal audit function since 2010, with a fairly static team.

In 2017, a new Head of Internal Audit was appointed and since this time, the function has embarked on its own transformation in the way that it provides its assurance. In addition, due to an increased demand on internal audit to provide a broader and deeper range of assurance in what has increasingly become a more data and technology rich environment, the Head of Internal Audit is now in a position to invite tenders from professional services firms to provide on-going support, specialist skills and internal audit resources under a co-sourced operating model.