Dame Karen Hope Dunnell, DCB, FAcSS (née Williamson; born 16 June 1946) is an American-born British medical sociologist and civil servant. She was National Statistician and Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom and head of the Government Statistical Service from 1 September 2005 until retiring on 28 August 2009. Since its inception in 2008, she was also the Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority. She began her career as a health care researcher with the Institute of Community Studies, where much of her work involved healthcare surveys, and, in 1972, she wrote a book, Medicine Takers, Prescribers and Hoarders with Ann Cartwright.

This established a measure of morbidity and the relationship between medicines acquired through the NHS and over-the-counter. Soon afterwards, Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that, following the success of the idea of independence for the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England as a means of gaining trust in its interest-rate decisions, a form of independence should be applied to ONS so that its data could also gain public trust. ONS is now accountable to Parliament via a Statistics Board, known as the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), rather than, as previously, via a Treasury minister. Following the implementation of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, the role of Registrar-General for England and Wales, an ancient additional title, held by the National Statistician since the inception of ONS, was transferred, with the General Register Office for England and Wales, which she also headed, to the Identification and Passport Service in the Home Office

Controversy

A government policy inherited by Karen Dunnell as National Statistician aroused controversy. Following the efficiency reviews initiated by the Chancellor and Prime Minister (viz. Review of Public Sector Relocation by Sir Michael Lyons, 2003–04, and Releasing Resources to the Front Line, Sir Peter Gershon, 2004), the government adopted a policy, criticised by unions, of dispersal of certain public service posts and functions out of London. The policy was initially applied to ONS during Len Cook's tenure as National Statistician but after Karen Dunnell succeeded to the post, ONS accelerated the policy of relocating the Office for National Statistics away from London and concentrating staff in its offices in Titchfield, near Southampton, and in Newport, South Wales, to which the ONS headquarters has moved. The announcement, in January 2007, of the almost complete closure of the ONS's London offices by 2010 reversed a decision to retain a sizeable office in the capital.

This relocation policy, together with substantial expenditure cutbacks in recent government spending settlements, resulted in disquiet among London-based staff whose representatives reported morale problems and a high staff turnover rate among staff still in London. To set against the risks to data quality of any loss of expertise, especially among London-based staff who were unwilling to move, including analysts in National Accounts and in health statistics, Ms. Dunnell defended ONS implementation of government policy on civil service relocation. In the face of some Bank of England disquiet, reported in 2007 to the Treasury Select Committee, about risks to economic data quality, combined with opposition from London staff (including a lack of confidence in management expressed in a staff survey highlighted by staff unions), she asserted that the ONS Board had agreed a process of managed and gradual change to take account of these risks, building up expertise in Newport before shifting functions there. She also cited the benefits to the local economy, the skills of existing ONS staff in Newport and access to universities and other resources in the region as well as the benefits of operating key functions from a single location.

Other roles

Outside the OPCS, Dunnell has been a member of the British Sociology Association and was on the committee of its BSA Medical Sociology Group. She later chaired the Society for Social Medicine. She is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, is a visiting professor at the London School of Hygiene. She has been elected to a second term as a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.

Dunnell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree by Middlesex University in July 2008, was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University in July 2009 and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2009.

References

  • Dame Karen Dunnell, DCB at Debrett's People of Today