Transparency data

Good practice for using official statistics: guidance for non-statistical staff

Updated 8 March 2023

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofquals-statistics-policies-and-procedures/good-practice-for-using-official-statistics-guidance-for-non-statistical-staff

The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 established the UK Statistics Authority and required it to draw up a Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The Code of Practice was published in February 2018 and provides a statement of good practice to be applied to Official Statistics in the UK.

In order to comply with the Code, staff who are not statisticians must follow this guidance:

  • when preparing any publication containing statistics, including statistics taken from administrative or management information, you must involve statistical professionals at the earliest opportunity
  • you must not use unpublished statistics without the advice of a statistical professional
  • you must not selectively quote favourable data from any unpublished data set
  • decisions taken by statistical professionals are final
  • any publication containing official statistics must provide information relating to their quality, reliability and usability
  • pre-release access to official statistics is a privilege, you must not disclose any information, nor seek to alter it in any way
  • ignoring any of the above may constitute a breach of the Code and result in an investigation by the UK Statistics Authority and a published report to Parliament

1. Further help

If you are unclear about what course of action to take, or about any of the guidance above, contact Ofqual’s Head of Profession for Statistics, Nadir Zanini at statistics@ofqual.gov.uk. If you are unable to reach Nadir, you can call the National Statistician Helpline on 020 7014 2350. The Code of Practice for Official Statistics is available for reference.

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