Citizens’ Forum

Find out how to get involved in our citizens’ forum events and have your voice heard

About

We launched our Citizens' Forum in 2018 to improve engagement with members of the public.   
 
Our forum consists of about 4,500 people from across the UK. Joining allows you to put your views directly to the Bank of England. It is also an opportunity for you to ask questions about our policies.  
 
Forum members help us understand how our decisions affect the public. This allows us to complement (or cross-check) our existing data and analysis.

Join our citizens’ forum

How to apply

Anyone over the age of 18 can join our community. All our sessions are free, but you must be a member of our forum and pre-register your interest in attending in-person and online events.  
 
When signing up, you will have to answer a series of questions, and we use your responses to make sure our events are as representative as possible.

What to expect

You will receive our monthly e-newsletter, information on upcoming events and the chance to share your views and give feedback on what we do. 

We will invite you to attend in-person Citizens’ Panels in your area, where you can meet Bank staff and share your views on the economy and other important issues, such as the cost of living and the UK housing market.

We hold about 12 panel events a year across the country, covering all English regions and the devolved nations. Each panel has an independent chair, a senior figure in the community who also champions the forum. Events are designed to be informal and accessible. 

We typically host between 30 and 40 forum members at each session, aiming for our audience to be as representative as possible. Attendees are split into small groups to discuss the agenda topics and each session concludes with a Q&A session, where you can ask our policymakers questions. 

There is a small monetary incentive to help to cover your expenses.  
 
Sometimes we ask forum members for their views on how we communicate our policies via our webpages and social media.  We also do deep-dive sessions into key topics, usually held virtually. 
 
After each event we produce an anonymised write up, which is shared with the attendees as well as with relevant stakeholders at the Bank. The intelligence gathered is included in our regular Agents’ summary of business conditions and our annual Outreach report.  

Upcoming events

If you would like to take part in any of these sessions, you should join our community and respond to the invitation you receive. If you are already a Citizens’ Forum member, please email Outreach@bankofengland.co.uk and tell us which session you would like to attend.

Past events 2023 – 2024

  • Information we collect

    By completing this application form for Citizens’ Forums ('Forums'), the Bank of England ('we' or the 'Bank') collects personal data about you. This information includes contact details, varied demographic information and your opinions about the economy.

    Why we need your personal data

    We collect your personal data to evaluate public understanding of the UK economy and the Bank’s mission.

    We also use your data to track how representative of the UK population our membership is.

    This is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority of the Bank.

    To the extent to which you provide us with any special categories of personal data, including diversity information, our basis for processing this data is that it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

    Your opinions may also influence how we conduct the Bank’s mission as relevant to the Bank’s policy, analytical, operational, and supervisory work.

    What we do with your personal data

    Citizens’ Forum application

    We use the information to develop our community, our events and track how representative we are of the UK population.

    We use a third party provider, Microsoft Forms, which stores data in the EU, to provide the online registration form and online survey tool. For more information about Microsoft Forms' security practices and privacy policy visit Microsoft's privacy statement.

    We use a third party e-communication platform called E-shot (hosted by a company called Forfront) which allows us to deliver accessible, e-marketing. E-shot, managed by Forfront, store their data in UK based servers. For more information about E-shot’s security practices and privacy policy visit E-shot’s Privacy statement.

    Citizens’ Forum events

    If selected to attend one of our events, we will use your personal data to co-ordinate your attendance and for event management.

    You will be required to bring proof of identity, such as a passport or driver’s licence, to ensure access is granted to the correct people. Appropriate security checks may be carried out as deemed necessary by the Bank.

    Further engagement

    Whether you attend an event or not, we will contact you with alternative engagement opportunities, such as surveys, which may be of interest to you.

    Any data you choose to provide may be linked to your personal profile to help us evaluate public understanding of the UK economy and the Bank’s mission.

    Your rights

    You have a number of rights under data protection laws. For example, you have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal data the Bank holds about you. This is known as a ‘Subject Access Request’. You can ask us to change how we process or deal with your personal data, and you may also have the right in some circumstances to have your personal data amended or deleted.To find out more about those rights, to make a complaint, or to contact our Data Protection Officer, please visit our privacy page. You can request that we no longer use your personal data, by email at outreach@bankofengland.co.uk or writing to us at the address below:

    Outreach, Communications, TS-M
    Bank of England
    Threadneedle Street
    London EC2R 8AH

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This page was last updated 15 May 2025