Transparency data

DBT annual statement of compliance with the Concordat to Support Research Integrity: 2024 to 2025

Published 20 February 2026

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is the department for economic growth. We support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country. DBT is a ministerial department, supported by 20 agencies and public bodies.

The department is responsible for:

• ensuring the UK is a global hub for advanced manufacturing
• helping businesses sell overseas
• doing business with integrity
• getting local market help to sell overseas
• helping overseas businesses locate in the UK
• helping UK businesses expand into overseas markets
• connecting overseas buyers with UK businesses
• The King’s Awards for Enterprise

All policy and delivery are expected to be informed by and developed through well-thought out analysis of the best available science and evidence. DBT works to uphold research integrity and acknowledges the Concordat to Support Research Integrity provides a national framework for good research conduct and its governance.

Research integrity means upholding the highest standards in research, including legal, ethical and professional standards, and having the right environment and processes in place to support this.

This statement summarises actions taken to ensure the integrity of research commissioned on behalf of the department is supported and transparent.

Governance

The Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean, the Head of Government Analysis Function, Sir Ian Diamond, and all departmental Chief Scientific Advisers (CSAs) have agreed to implement the principles of the concordat for research undertaken and commissioned by their departments.

DBT Director of Analysis, Ben Cropper, is the senior member of staff in the department responsible for overseeing research integrity and implementing best practice, with support from Professor Julia Sutcliffe, DBT CSA and departmental Head of Government Science and Engineering Profession. The Office for the Chief Scientific Adviser is responsible for issuing the annual statement for research integrity.

The ethical implications of research should be considered throughout analysis, from planning and set-up, project delivery, and the interpretation and dissemination of findings.​ DBT has an ethics committee which can discuss cases. Security of personal data is upheld in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Any queries or concerns can be sent to research@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Processes to support culture of research integrity

DBT has established comprehensive processes to support externally commissioned research, ensuring each project upholds the highest standards of analytical integrity, governance, and quality assurance. These safeguards are designed to provide meaningful insights and optimal value for money.

To promote consistency and informed practice, DBT maintains accessible internal communications and a centralised repository, providing all staff with up-to-date guidance, documentation, and support tools.

DBT works to ensure research projects undergo systematic monitoring at important stages. This includes clear documentation of data sources and measurement frameworks, along with dedicated accountability for data collection, quality assurance, and ongoing data management.

Guidance for researchers, employers and commissioners of research

The department follows codes of practice from cross-governmental analytical professions, such as the Government Social Research Code and the Government Statistician Group Code of Practice for Statistics.

Additionally, the Government Science and Engineering Profession Career Framework lists understanding and application of the concordat among its technical skills expected to be demonstrated by scientists and engineers within government.

In analytical activities, departmental processes are aligned with guidance from HM Treasury (HMT) such as the Green Book, the Magenta Book, and the AQuA Book.

Internal guidance is clearly signposted on topics that allow projects to meet the following commitments:

• designing and scoping research and evaluation
• implementing and managing research and evaluation
• communicating learning from research and evaluation
• post-implementation

Government Social Research (GSR) publications are produced in line with the following standards. Evidence produced by and on behalf of government analysts needs to be comprehensive and of consistently high standards, to enable people to make well-informed decisions about policies, programmes and projects.

Across all scientific disciplines, one tried and tested way of ensuring that best practice methods in research are employed is for results to be open to scrutiny and challenge. As well as driving up standards, publishing the evidence on which policies are based also provides greater transparency across government, enabling the public to hold government and public bodies to account.

Research and data pertaining to regulation and standards of products is informed by the Government Data Quality Framework and underpinned by the following principles:

• value – we understand why we collect the data, the purpose and the link to our strategic objectives, as well as the costs of data
• quality – we seek to improve the quality of the data we collect and base our decisions on
• integrity – we act with integrity, and in accordance with legal requirements, in our handling, use, application, retention and disposal of data
• transparency – we are transparent in why we are requesting data and how it may be used
• open – we seek to open our data up to enable reuse by others in support of our outcomes: informed consumers and compliant businesses
• accessible – we seek to create an accessible, security compliant infrastructure to ensure all teams have access to the data they need

Training and raising awareness

Information is available to all staff on processes that support research integrity, including the reasons for change and implementation guidance. We also promote training that other bodies develop and share, including through the Government Office for Science.

The department continues to develop a positive research integrity culture, with frequent and open communication, appropriate sharing of data, and an environment in which mistakes are acknowledged and result in improvement.

External engagement

DBT CSA Office has extensive links across government and other sectors to engage on research, share best practice, and maximise of the use of data and research through proper assurance, caveats, updates, and review. Additionally, relevant members of the department engage with the Science Capability Hub, hosted by the Government Office for Science (GO-Science). This provides support and peer learning across areas of science capability that underpin the conduct of effective research programmes.

Similarly, DBT Director of Analysis and the wider analysis community have extensive links and engage proactively with the external expert community both to help inform DBT’s work and shape the overall debate. We do this formally through participation in various groups and through our paid research budget, and informally through constant conversation and working together.

More broadly, we recognise research is best done together. Working with a diverse range of external partners ensures we remain at the forefront of research. This takes place through our areas of research interest, calls for evidence, and the Council for Science and Technology.

Open science and research protocols

DBT is dedicated to creating reproducible analysis and research, ensuring that transparent methods and data have been implemented in the process.

All published research is available freely on the Government Research and Statistics database. Where possible, underpinning data and details of research are made available alongside the reports.

Publication of research

DBT aims to publish research outputs in support of our transparency plan, in line with the GSR protocol and the commitments outlined in our Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy. This includes sharing decision-making processes, research findings, and statistical outputs wherever appropriate.

However, there may be occasions where publication is delayed or withheld in accordance with relevant exemptions, such as where release could:

• pose risks to national security
• destabilise the economy
• breach commercial confidentiality
• conflict with personal privacy rights

In such cases, DBT may also anonymise or restrict content to protect sensitive interests while maintaining our overall commitment to openness and accountability.

Research misconduct

DBT works to ensure high standards of conduct in all that it does. For civil servants, these standards are reinforced by the Civil Service Code, Civil Service Management Code and DBT’s Conduct policy. It is important that staff feel comfortable and safe speaking up if they come across something in the course of their work, past, present or imminent, that they think is wrong, illegal or endangers others.

Concerns will be treated seriously and the person raising the concern will not be treated unfairly or be at risk of losing their job. Complaints of wrongdoing will be treated sensitively and confidentially. Any disclosures made under this procedure will always be treated in a sensitive manner.

DBT recognises that the employee may want to raise a concern in confidence and will respect any request for anonymity as far as possible. The concern will be handled on a ‘need to know’ basis.

There were no reported cases of misconduct in relation to research conducted or commissioned by the department during the financial year 2024 to 2025, thus no investigations were conducted.