What have the RSS policy team been working on this quarter? 🤖 AI regulation 📊 Public statistics 📚 Statistics education & misinformation 🔓 Access to public sector data Our latest blog rounds up recent activity, engagement and priorities across these key areas. Read more 👇

Quarterly Policy Blog: AI Regulation Needs Statistics

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📣 RSS members: we want to hear from you! Our Member Satisfaction Survey is now open and in members' inboxes. Tell us what's working, what could be improved, and how we can better support you. It only takes a few minutes to help shape the future of the Society. rss.org.uk/news-publica...

Have Your Say: Complete the RSS Member Satisfaction Survey

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We support the goal of improving workplace equality, but good policy needs good methodology. In our letter to Bridget Phillipson, we share three key recommendations to help ensure reporting is meaningful, robust and avoids unintended consequences. Read more 👇

RSS raises concerns over pay gap reporting proposals

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Can you believe it’s nearly October already? 🍂 There are now just 2 weeks left to vote in the RSS Council election. We have a fantastic range of candidates standing, so be sure to have your say before 13 October. Voting links have been sent to members by email. Meet the candidates 👇

Meet the candidates for the 2026 RSS Council elections

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Fascinating discussion on BBC Radio 4 this morning, featuring the cover article of this month's Significance!

Significance magazine@significancemag.bsky.social · last wk.

Exciting to hear our September cover feature on BBC Radio 4's More or Less this morning! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... Thank you🙏 @timharford.ft.com @mitchellst.bsky.social Read the full article for free right here: academic.oup.com/jrssig/artic...

Happy #MathsWeekScotland! 📊 We're proud to support engaging and relevant maths and statistics education. Looking for something to explore with students this week? Our 2026 William Guy Lectures on misinformation help young people navigate an increasingly complex world. rss.org.uk/policy-campa...

As decision-making moves closer to regions and local communities, comparable statistics across the UK matter more than ever. 📊 In our latest guest blog, David Caplan reflects on an RSS roundtable exploring how data can better support comparisons across the UK and improve decision-making.

Supporting UK data coherence and comparability: insights from our recent roundtable

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We really enjoyed this thought-provoking blog from our William Guy Lecturer (16+) Tom Crick, exploring statistics, misinformation and how we make good judgements in a complex information environment. You can also watch and share Tom's lecture for schools with educators and students.

Professor Tom Crick@proftomcrick.com · 3w ago

Can you trust the numbers? New post + full RSS William Guy Lecture on statistics, misinformation and the information ecosystem. Trustworthy information is infrastructure. Maintaining it is stewardship: proftomcrick.com/2026/09/13/c... @royalstatsoc.bsky.social

Can you trust the numbers? New post + full RSS William Guy Lecture on statistics, misinformation and the information ecosystem. Trustworthy information is infrastructure. Maintaining it is stewardship: proftomcrick.com/2026/09/13/c... @royalstatsoc.bsky.social

Can you trust the numbers?

Back in June, I wrote about being appointed as one of the Royal Statistical Society’s William Guy Lecturers for 2026/27. My lecture, aimed particularly at students aged 16 and over, asks a de…

proftomcrick.com

We welcome the report from PACAC and agree much has already changed. The arrival of the new national statistician presents an opportunity to accelerate progress and we remain committed to supporting the statistical system through the required ongoing transformation in the production of statistics.

House of Commons Committees@hoccommittees.parliament.uk · 3w ago

MPs warn that the Office for National Statistics and the UK Statistics Authority must learn from past failures to rebuild trust in the data they provide. Find out more with a new report from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs committee: committees.parliament.uk/committee/32...

A brilliant closing keynote from Leonhard Held on reproducible science and better research practice. Now we're off to the Closing Dinner to celebrate an unforgettable #RSS2026 and the amazing community that made it so special. 🎉

A great atmosphere at last night's Awards & Poster Reception! 🎉 From exciting new research to thought-provoking conversations, it was wonderful to see so many delegates connecting over posters and sharing ideas. 📊✨

A fascinating day at #RSS2026! From Simon French's discussion of Bayesian statistics and scientific induction to the Barnett Lecture from Finn Lindgren, we've had plenty to think about on evidence, uncertainty and scientific discovery. 👏📊 Now onto the awards and poster reception!

Another brilliant day at #RSS2026! 🎉 We enjoyed thoughtful and inspiring keynotes from Dame Sheila Bird and Ron Wasserstein, followed by a fantastic Quiz Night. Thanks to the RSS Young Statisticians Section for another year of puzzles and trivia! 🧠

We congratulate André Loranger on his appointment as UK National Statistician and look forward to working together in the years ahead to strengthen statistics in public life and support confidence in the UK's statistical system 📊 uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/andre-l...

A brilliant start to #RSS2026! 🎉 We enjoyed a warm welcome from our President, an inspiring keynote from Bhramar Mukherjee, and a fantastic evening on Bournemouth Pier. We're excited for the keynotes and conversations still to come, and to catch up with colleagues from around the world. 📊🌍

🎉 Welcome to #RSS2026! We're excited to kick off a fantastic conference packed with inspiring speakers, thought-provoking sessions and opportunities to connect with the statistical community. See you over the next few days! 📊

🎉 Congrats to Daniel Xiang, winner of our David Cox Research Prize. His influential work on empirical Bayes methods for multiple testing advances understanding in an important area of statistics A well deserved honour, which we look forward to awarding him next week in Bournemouth! Read more👇

Daniel Xiang awarded RSS David Cox Research Prize 2026

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There's just a month to go until the start of this year's @royalstatsoc.bsky.social international conference in Bournemouth & there's still time to book: rss.org.uk/training-eve... Why attend? Hear from past attendees about why they enjoy the conference: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCF... #RSS2026Conf

Register for RSS International Conference 2026

YouTube video by RoyalStatSoc

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AI systems are statistical technologies. What does that mean for science, regulation and public trust? Read our interview with RSS Head of Policy Jonathan Everett, and explore our FAQs (rss.org.uk/news-publica... ) to better understand how AI works and where it can go wrong.

A conversation with the RSS Head of Policy about our work on AI

rss.org.uk

The chair of our AI Task Force has an opinion piece in @civilserviceworld.bsky.social arguing that separating the parts of government dealing with AI policy from digital and data policy risks making the government's AI strategy harder to deliver. www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...

AI strategy is only as strong as its digital and data foundations

Separating the parts of government dealing with AI policy and digital and data policy and regulation into different departments risks making effect...

civilserviceworld.com

In 19th century Vienna, a young physician named Ignác Semmelweis discovered that doctors' dirty hands led to deaths. So can modern statistical techniques on Semmelweis's own data show us just how important this was? significancemagazine.com/the-semmelwe...

Following our recent work on UK poverty data gaps, we’ve launched a new project focused on ethnicity and poverty data in Northern Ireland, funded by the @jrf-uk.bsky.social Insight Infrastructure, and supported by JRF NI. Find out more (and how to contribute): rss.org.uk/news-publica...

RSS launch new research into data gaps in Northern Ireland

rss.org.uk

Calling recent graduates! If you’ve just completed a degree in Statistics, Data Science or similar, congratulations! Y ou may be eligible for Graduate Statistician status – as well as half price membership for five years! rss.org.uk/membership/j...

The best advocates for statistics aren't always statisticians. Think of the journalist bringing evidence to life, the teacher inspiring data literacy, or the innovator using statistical thinking to strengthen data based decision making. If someone comes to mind, we'd love to hear from you!

Nominations open for Honorary Fellowships 2027

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Are you a data professional finding it hard to keep up with frontier capabilities and best application practices that change weekly? We have a fab guide to staying informed, brought to us by the long-term editor of the RSS Data Science and AI newsletter. realworlddatascience.net/the-pulse/po...

How to stay up to date as a data scientist? – Real World Data Science

Every month Piers Stobbs scours the internet to find you the most up to date information on AI/Stats/ML for the RSS Data Science and AI section newsletter. Now he explains how!

realworlddatascience.net

We were deeply saddened to hear of the sudden death of Professor Adrian Bowman, a distinguished statistician, longstanding RSS fellow, and valued contributor to the Society for almost five decades. Adrian's contributions to statistics, teaching, and the RSS will have a lasting impact.

Adrian W. Bowman, 1955-2026

rss.org.uk

As heatwaves sweep across Europe, climate change is once again front and centre. But 10 years after the Paris Agreement, what do the numbers say? Both the modest improvements and significant challenges show the importance of stats in understanding climate progress. Read the latest CCTF explainer👇

Did the Paris Agreement work? RSS explainer assesses the evidence

rss.org.uk

There's just one week left to get a discount on your registration for September's @royalstatsoc.bsky.social international conference. Join the statistics and data science community in Bournemouth from 7-10 September - full conference details here: rss.org.uk/training-eve... #RSS2026Conf

Welcome to our headline supporter for the RSS 2026 International Conference 🎉 A huge thank you to @saildatabank.bsky.social – leaders in secure data-driven research - based in @swanseauni.bsky.social Exciting times ahead—join us for a standout event in stats & data! rss.org.uk/training-eve...