If January is your slow month, now’s the time to act on these current data user consultations:

(1) Beyond 2011 – Public Consultation

Opening date: 17 October 2011
Closing date: 20 January 2012
Department: Office for National Statistics
Category: General

The User Needs Consultation aims to ensure that we have a clear understanding of users’ needs and priorities.

The views expressed will be critical in determining how we develop our assessment criteria, how we evaluate alternative approaches and what option we recommend for further development beyond 2014.

The User Needs Consultation document can be downloaded from our website (626 Kb Word document) .

This document provides brief discussion and guidance on the questions included in the questionnaire and we would appreciate it if you could look at it before responding.

Thanks in advance for your help on this.

Please complete the questionnaire online  – or use the questionnaire included in the consultation document and return electronically to beyond2011@ons.gov.uk by 20 January 2012.

If you would like to share your views on the issues behind the Beyond 2011 Public Consultation you can join the conversation on the Royal Statistical Society Statistics User Forum.

(2) Lifestyles Surveys Consultation Review

As you will be aware, the NHS Information Centre (IC) publishes the following Lifestyles survey publications:

• Health Survey for England – Health, Lifestyles and Social Care
• Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England
• Infant Feeding Survey

The findings are used to provide an insight into the health and behaviour of people in England. The longevity of the surveys also enables changing trends to be studied over time. They can be used to help decision makers improve policies and services and ultimately improve the health of population in this country.

The NHS IC has launched a public consultation on the Lifestyles surveys with the following aims:

• to engage with the users of the surveys to develop a more complete understanding of the use made of this data
• to ensure the surveys are relevant and meaningful to the needs of users
• to seek the views of users on the content and format of the publications

This consultation will run for 12 weeks from Friday 30 December 2011 to Friday 23 March 2012. Please ensure you submit any comments prior to the closing date so they can be considered.

Further details, along with the full consultation document are available at www.ic.nhs.uk/work-with-us/consultations/lifestyles-surveys-consultation-review