Statement of code compliance
Updated 17 July 2026
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbt-standards-for-official-statistics/statement-of-code-compliance
Introduction
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is committed to ensuring adherence to the Code of Practice for Statistics. This statement sets out how the department meets the code of practice’s core principles of:
- trustworthiness
- quality
- value
Trustworthiness
DBT’s Chief Statistician and Head of Profession oversee the statistical community in DBT, and ensure the department as a whole abides by the Code of Practice for Statistics. This includes ensuring impartiality, fostering an evidence-based approach to decision-making and approving major changes to the statistics DBT produces. Details of some of this work, including the promotion of ‘intelligent transparency’ within the department, are highlighted in our Statistical work programme.
DBT is also committed to being transparent in how it releases data. DBT’s official statistics are pre-announced in the Release Calendar, and a Statistical work programme which sets out DBT’s statistical plans for the financial year.
For details on how DBT maintains the confidentiality of individual and business information, read the ‘Confidentiality policy’ and ‘Data management approach’ on our main DBT standards for official statistics webpage. Our Privacy policy also outlines how we handle personal data.
Quality
DBT is committed to supporting a culture of good practice, continuous improvement, transparency about quality, and rigorous statistics. For details of how we do this, read our Quality management approach. Our annual Statistical work programme also contains information about how we are driving quality through cross-cutting initiatives. DBT’s statistical outputs include more specific information about their quality.
Value
DBT is committed to producing statistics that are relevant, clear and accessible. DBT conducts public engagement to ensure its statistics are relevant to society’s needs. For further details, read our Public involvement and engagement strategy. DBT’s areas of research interest publication is a statement of our evidence priorities and an open invitation for engagement with the research and innovation community to enhance DBT’s evidence base.
DBT is committed to making its statistical outputs accessible to all users, as explained in our Accessibility statement.
Contact Information
We welcome your questions and views on our statistical work programme.
You can contact us at statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk.
We would encourage users to engage directly with the publication teams for any comments on specific developments.
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
You can contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards.
Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.