Stephen Pottinger

I am a badged statistician working in the Central Hub for Analysis in MHCLG. I have recently returned from a temporary promotion to SEO at the Building Safety Regulator (Nov 2025 – March 2026). Here, I worked as a data analyst, managing an influx of new data on High Rise Buildings found to have cladding materials that need removing and monitoring the stages of remediation.

I created a reporting suite in Power BI to provide a live dashboard containing clear up-to-date information from the progression of remediation on the high rise buildings to our stakeholders. I liaised with partners internally and externally to share information and constantly improve the product according to business needs. Back in my substantive role, I lead on leasehold evidence and statistics and produce the annual statistical release for the estimated number of 'Leasehold Dwellings' in England.

I have progressed the leasehold dwellings estimate from experimental statistics to official statistics through a submission to the housing minister. I have worked to improve our leasehold statistics publications by combining datasets and gaining authority to amend the data sharing agreement with the land registry. I frequently respond to requests from the policy teams in the department for data on leasehold homes and household demographics and financial costs such as ground rent and I manipulate datasets to provide the information needed to support the on-going leasehold reforms.

I collaborate with my team to analyse complex data from the English Housing Survey and produce the headline report and also project-manage the delivery of detailed topical reports that are produced by our contractors from the survey data. I regularly present my findings at directorate-wide meetings using power point slides with graphs and other visuals to grab attention and help to deliver key messages to technical and non-technical staff. I have also written several blogs regarding my findings, which have been posted on our intranet to convey messages to a wider audience.

I also to focus groups on various corporate issues. Also, I have attended surveyor briefings, in which I have presented EHS statistics to the contractors and have taken a field trip to survey dwellings, which has improved my knowledge of building safety and hazards in different types of residential properties.

Higher Statistical Officer at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2020-09 – Present)

I am a badged statistician working in the Central Hub for Analysis in MHCLG. I have recently returned from a temporary promotion to SEO at the Building Safety Regulator (Nov 2025 – March 2026). Here, I worked as a data analyst, managing an influx of new data on High Rise Buildings found to have cladding materials that need removing and monitoring the stages of remediation.

I created a reporting suite in Power BI to provide a live dashboard containing clear up-to-date information from the progression of remediation on the high rise buildings to our stakeholders. I liaised with partners internally and externally to share information and constantly improve the product according to business needs. Back in my substantive role, I lead on leasehold evidence and statistics and produce the annual statistical release for the estimated number of 'Leasehold Dwellings' in England.

I have progressed the leasehold dwellings estimate from experimental statistics to official statistics through a submission to the housing minister. I have worked to improve our leasehold statistics publications by combining datasets and gaining authority to amend the data sharing agreement with the land registry. I frequently respond to requests from the policy teams in the department for data on leasehold homes and household demographics and financial costs such as ground rent and I manipulate datasets to provide the information needed to support the on-going leasehold reforms.

I collaborate with my team to analyse complex data from the English Housing Survey and produce the headline report and also project-manage the delivery of detailed topical reports that are produced by our contractors from the survey data. I regularly present my findings at directorate-wide meetings using power point slides with graphs and other visuals to grab attention and help to deliver key messages to technical and non-technical staff. I have also written several blogs regarding my findings, which have been posted on our intranet to convey messages to a wider audience.

I also to focus groups on various corporate issues. Also, I have attended surveyor briefings, in which I have presented EHS statistics to the contractors and have taken a field trip to survey dwellings, which has improved my knowledge of building safety and hazards in different types of residential properties.

Data Analyst Apprentice at The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) (2018-03 – 2020-09)

As a data analyst in the Information and Analysis team, I led on the quarterly statistical release for freight rail usage. This involved gathering, collating and cleaning the data, analysing the results, comparing with previous years to produce a quarterly statistical release. I completed and passed a Data Analyst Apprenticeship while working at ORR.

I learnt several techniques for analysing big data and incorporated the skills in my day-to-day work. This included regular big data handling in SQL, merging datasets and exporting tables. I used Power BI to produce a new interactive visual for the freight rail usage home page.

I also modelled projections within excel, using linear regression to predict the future trajectory of freight rail usage, which I presented to rail industry stakeholders.

PEP Analyst at The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (2014 – 2016)

I played an important role within the screening of existing and onboarding customers for financial connections to PEPs (politically exposed persons).

• I collated information about the PEP from bank records and public sources to determine if there was a significant likelihood of money-laundering through their higher risk of receiving funds from bribery or corruption.
• I made important decisions to and through attention to detail applied the required due diligence to protect the bank.

AML Associate at The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (2009 – 2014)

• Transaction monitoring of payment traffic through the accounts of NatWest and RBS, investigating payment for evidence of terrorist financing, making risk-based decisions.
• Investigated payment payees and senders and references daily to see if matched with a watched person, entity or country in line with current sanctions.
• I worked to deadlines, daily, seeking senior authorisation to release payments in a high pressured environment.
• I also led a risk team, which did control testing and client screening to ensure that compliance with the bank's policy was met and to reported any errors or breaches.

Customer Services Officer at The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (2001 – 2009)

• First point of contact for corporate and commercial customers. I responded to complex complaints and queries on a variety of banking issues and corresponded with each commercial client's relationship manager to identify sources of issues and solve problems.

BSc in Mathematics and Statistics – Birkbeck College, University of London (2012 – 2017)