Services / Independent statistician
An independent statistician, named on your project
Research teams, charities and businesses bring us in when a project needs statistical judgement it does not employ full time — a funder asking for a named statistician on the bid, a board paper that has to survive scrutiny, or analysis done in house that someone independent should check before it is published.
- Named statistician assigned before you commit
- Named on your bid, with the statistical sections written
- Independent review of analysis done in house
- Follow-up questions included
An independent statistician is a qualified statistician engaged on a project without being employed by the organisation running it. They design or check the analysis and report what the data supports, free of any stake in the conclusion. Organisations use one when a funder requires a named statistician on a bid, when a result has to withstand external scrutiny, or when work done in house needs an impartial second opinion.
What is included
What an independent statistician does for you
Named on your funding bid
NIHR, UKRI and most large trusts want a named statistician with a stated role. We can be named, write the statistical methodology, and settle the sample size before you submit.
Analysis designed and run
From the question through to the output, with assumptions tested and reported rather than quietly assumed.
Independent review
A second pair of eyes on analysis done in house or by an agency, before it reaches a journal, a board or a regulator.
Expert statistical opinion
A written, attributable opinion where a decision, a dispute or a submission turns on what the numbers actually show.
Sample size before you collect
The question ethics committees and funders ask first, answered with the justification they expect.
Reporting that survives scrutiny
Written for the audience that has to act on it, with the uncertainty stated instead of buried.
Who it is for
When organisations bring in an independent statistician
- A named statistician required on a grant application
- Departmental research support without a permanent post
- Statistical review before submission to a journal
- Trial and study design, including sample size justification
- Evaluation evidence a funder will accept
- A board paper or business case that has to hold up
- Independent check of analysis done in house
- An impartial opinion where a decision is contested
Why independence
What independence actually buys you
Most analysis is done by people who want a particular answer. That is not dishonesty — it is the ordinary pull of having designed the programme, written the bid, or spent two years on the hypothesis. It shows up as assumptions left untested, a subgroup reported because it reached significance, a confidence interval omitted because it was uncomfortably wide.
An independent statistician has no stake in the conclusion. The practical consequence is that you are told, before anyone else is, when the data will not support the claim you hoped to make. That is an uncomfortable conversation and it is precisely what you are paying for — because the alternative is a reviewer, a funder or an auditor having it with you later, in public.
It also means the work is reproducible by someone else. You receive the syntax or code, the assumption checks and the reasoning, so a third party can repeat the analysis and reach the same place. That is what makes a result defensible rather than merely asserted.
Typical work
What we are most often brought in for
If your project resembles one of these, we have done it before and can quote quickly.
Grant and funding applications
Named on the bid, with the statistical methodology, power calculation and analysis plan written to the funder's template.
Trial and study design
Randomisation, primary and secondary outcomes, and a sample size you can justify to an ethics committee.
Independent review of existing work
Method, assumptions and conclusions checked, with a written note of what holds and what does not.
Evaluation evidence
Turning programme outcomes into findings a funder will accept, with the comparison made explicit.
Expert opinion
A written, attributable statistical opinion where a submission or a decision depends on it.
Ongoing retained support
A fixed block of statistician time across a year for teams with recurring but intermittent need.
How to compare us
Questions worth asking any statistician you engage
"Statistician" is not a protected title in the United Kingdom — anyone may use it. These are the questions we would put to any provider, including us.
| What to ask | Why it matters | Our answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who specifically will do the work? | Agencies sell on a senior name and deliver with a junior analyst. | Named before you commit; you correspond with them directly. |
| What are their qualifications? | "Statistician" is not a protected title in the UK. Anyone may use it. | Five named statisticians with UK doctorates, published in full. |
| Will I get the code or syntax? | Analysis that cannot be reproduced cannot be checked. | Always delivered, as standard. |
| What if the data does not support the claim? | An adviser whose answer always matches the hoped-for conclusion is not being independent. | You are told before it reaches a funder or a board. |
| Can you be named on our application? | Funders increasingly require it, and will check the role is real. | Yes, with the statistical sections written to their template. |
| How is the work priced? | Hourly billing against an open scope transfers all the risk to you. | Fixed quote against a written scope. |
Security and governance
How your data is handled
Usually the first question from NHS, university and local authority buyers — reasonably so.
If your organisation has a standard supplier assurance process, send it with the enquiry and we will complete it during scoping rather than after you have committed.
Pricing
What it costs, and why it is quoted rather than listed
The honest answer is that price depends on the state of the data and the scope of the question. A clean dataset with a well-specified question costs a fraction of a project that begins by reconciling three incompatible systems. So we look first and quote after.
Typical agency model
- Hourly billing against a scope that expands
- A senior name sells it, a junior delivers it
- Output without the code behind it
- Revisions billed as new work
How we work
- Fixed price agreed before anything starts
- The statistician named on the quote does the work
- Syntax and method note delivered as standard
- Follow-up questions included in the price
For most organisations this is materially cheaper than the alternatives — a permanent analyst hire for intermittent work, or a large consultancy billing hourly.
How it works
Three steps, entirely in writing
Send what you have
Attach the data, or just describe the project. No account, no mandatory call, and a five-field form rather than a fifteen-field one.
Approve a fixed quote
Usually within one working day, naming the statistician assigned, the deliverables and the deadline.
Receive the work
Output, syntax and a plain-English explanation — with follow-up questions answered at no extra cost.
Client feedback
What clients say about this work
“Professional statistical consultancy with practical recommendations that helped us make informed business decisions.”
“Their organisational data analysis was thorough and easy to understand. The final report provided valuable insights.”
Proof
This work, on real projects
Clients are not named and no identifying detail is published, so what is described is the statistical problem — which is the part that shows whether a consultancy knows what it is doing.
Cox Proportional Hazards Modelling to Identify Patients Most at Risk of Readmission
Modelling time-to-event rather than event-or-not, so a large public sector organisation could target risk assessment where it mattered.
Public services · Time series forecastingSeasonal ARIMA Forecasting with Intervention Analysis for Resource Planning
Twelve years of monthly demand with seasonality, trend and structural breaks — where simple smoothing methods failed consistently.
Manufacturing · Generalised linear mixed modelsGeneralised Linear Mixed Models to Identify the Drivers of Production Defects
A quarter of a million production records across six lines and two years, where univariate analysis could not separate interacting process variables.
Your statistician
Who does this work
Member of the Royal Statistical Society
Econometrics, forecasting and causal inference for policy evaluation, business analytics and operations.
This page was reviewed for statistical accuracy by Saad Tariq on 14 August 2026.
Common questions
Answers before you ask
What does an independent statistician do?
Provides the statistical judgement a project needs without being employed by it: designing the analysis, running it, and reporting what the data will and will not support. Independence matters most where the result has consequences — a funder decision, a board paper, a publication — because an analyst with no stake in the conclusion is free to report the one the data gives.
Can you be named on our funding application?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons organisations come to us. NIHR, UKRI and most large trusts expect a named statistician on the application with a stated role. We can be named, write the statistical sections of the methodology, and confirm the sample size and analysis plan before submission.
Can you review analysis we have already done?
Yes. Independent review is a service in its own right — we check the method, the assumptions and whether the conclusions follow, and tell you plainly where they do not. It is far cheaper than a reviewer or an auditor finding the same problem later.
Is this cheaper than hiring a statistician?
For most organisations, yes — a permanent statistician is a salaried post, and the need is usually intermittent. You pay for the project rather than the post, and you get someone with a doctorate rather than whoever the budget would stretch to.
Who exactly would work on our project?
One of five named statisticians, matched to the method and the sector, and you are told who before you approve the quote. Their qualifications and specialisms are published in full. You correspond with them directly rather than through an account manager.
What if our data does not support what we hoped to show?
You are told before it reaches a funder, a board or a journal. That is the point of independence — and an honest negative result, properly reported, does far less damage than a positive one that does not survive scrutiny.
Related
Often needed alongside this
Statistical consultancy
When the whole analysis is the engagement rather than a named role on someone else’s project.
From £950Sample size & power
The calculation a funder or ethics committee asks for, with the written justification.
From £180Theory of change builder
Free tool for the diagram funders ask for, with an evidence check built in.
FreeSend the data. Get a fixed quote.
Describe the project, the bid or the analysis you want checked. A named statistician replies with a price and a deadline, usually within one working day.