Now we are going much farther and developing measures of wellbeing that we can then use to inform policy.

It would be far more useful for all concerned if memories rather than denials were allowed to inform policy; our derring-do did, after all, teach us something.

Ministers argued that he had gone beyond his remit to provide evidence to inform policy and was trying to shape it himself.

This view holds that charities' expertise should not inform policy, and that their experiences should not be shared with the public.

Government departments, local authorities, the emergency services, charities, community groups and academics are among those who rely on census data to plan services, inform policy decisions and allocate resources.