Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
Updated 17 December 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
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Ofqual’s official statistics are produced in line with the principles included within the Code of Practice for Statistics (henceforth referred to as ‘the Code’). For our other statistical releases, we also aim to adhere to these principles wherever possible.
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 are welcome to contact us directly (via data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk) 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.
Our statistics are regularly reviewed with the Code in mind, and we work to improve them as and when opportunities to strengthen them are identified.
This document outlines the ways in which we work under the 3 core principles of the Code, which are trustworthiness, quality and value. Each of these principles contain a number of individual standards, which form the sub-section titles below.
Trustworthiness
Show integrity
Within Ofqual’s analytical function, the production of official statistics is taken seriously, and leadership promotes and protects a culture of honesty and integrity throughout our work.
Staff working on the production and quality assurance of statistics are appropriately insulated from political pressures that either could, or could appear to, influence the production or presentation of statistical publications. All staff involved in the production and quality assurance of official statistics are also asked to sign a declaration stating that they will protect the confidentiality of official statistics prior to their release.
We are focusing on improving our understanding of user needs and identifying ways to better meet those needs (see our public involvement and engagement strategy for more information).
When reporting statistics, we focus on objectivity and transparency. For more information, see our release practice policy for official statistics and our corrections and revisions policy for official statistics.
Lead responsibly
Ofqual has a Head of Profession for Statistics in post, who is responsible for promoting and overseeing the production of official statistics in line with the Code, challenging any potential misuse of statistics and data. This post reports to senior colleagues within Ofqual on operational matters, but also directly to the National Statistician for matters relating to the production of statistics.
Regular communication is maintained between Ofqual’s Head of Profession for Statistics and the OSR. We aim to seek more external audits from the OSR in the near future for external assurance of our procedures and publications.
Our statistics production staff work with a number of good practice principles and frameworks in mind, as outlined in our quality framework for statistical publications. These help ensure that our skills and processes are robust, resilient and high quality. Layers of accountability also help ensure the same.
Several our staff are badged members of the Government Statistician Group (GSG), and we are seeking to increase this number in the near future. Opportunities for professional development are encouraged as and when identified.
Be transparent
All Ofqual official statistics are publicly preannounced on our preannouncements calendar. Statistics are scheduled for release as soon as is practical after the data being made available to us. They are published on our website at 9:30am, usually on a Thursday. All our releases contain contact information, should users wish to contact us. See our release practice policy for official statistics for more information.
Corrections and revisions are handled according to our corrections and revisions policy for official statistics, including that they should be published as promptly as possible.
Prior to public release, access to official statistics is strictly restricted to those directly involved in the production or quality assurance of the statistics; 24-hour pre-release is also made available to eligible recipients (further information is available in our pre-release policy for official statistics).
Manage data responsibly
We transparently publish our policies and procedures for official statistics on our website, making clear our data sources and commitments to handling data securely.
In particular, as described in our confidentiality and data management policy, we take various appropriate measures to protect data security and the confidentiality of data subjects. Our rounding policy supports the same.
Quality
Prioritise quality
As described in our statement on administrative data sources, most of the data used to produce our official statistics comes from the systems awarding organisations use to administer their qualifications.
Given that this data is collected for administrative purposes, not necessarily with statistical reporting in mind, our statistics production staff focus on understanding the nature of the data (including its potential caveats, limitations and sources of uncertainty) and carrying out a number of validation and quality assurance activities, in line with our quality framework for statistical publications. We continually review the strength of our processes to identify areas for improvement.
We maintain an open dialogue with data providers, both on an ad-hoc basis and through quarterly data forum meetings, to gain and maintain an understanding of the data they supply, to ensure they have a firm understanding of our data requirements, and to address any potential or realised data quality issues. See our statement on administrative data sources for more information.
We aim to be as transparent as possible in our statistical releases regarding the quality of the data being used, including any limitations and potential or actual sources of uncertainty, and the likely impact these might have on the figures reported, as noted in our release practice policy for official statistics.
Be rigorous
As described in our quality framework for statistical publications, we work with a number of cross-government good practice frameworks in mind to ensure that our methods are reproducible and high-quality. We work closely with our data suppliers to ensure quality at source, as explained in our statement on administrative data sources.
We work with user needs in line, and are seeking to improve our understanding of our users and their needs as described in our public involvement and engagement strategy, making changes to statistical releases to better align with those needs wherever practical and appropriate to do so.
Before initiating any new data collections, we consult with our data suppliers (awarding organisations) to assess the proportionality of the request. How we work with our data suppliers is described further in our statement on administrative data sources.
Be open about quality
We will be transparent on data sources as well as any known caveats or limitations associated with our data and analytical methods. Where complex methods have been applied, an explanation will be given. These practices are noted in our release practice policy for official statistics.
In general, our statistics present a 5-year time series, with previous publications also being kept available for historical trends. Where methods have changed that might interrupt this time series, these will be clearly explained. As per our public involvement and engagement strategy, we will consult with users before making major changes to methodology or presentation, wherever possible.
Where errors occur, or data is missing or late, we will be up-front and transparent about these, aiming to publish corrections or revisions as soon as possible. See our corrections and revisions policy for official statistics for more information.
We may at times publish statistics as ‘official statistics in development’, to recognise where we are developing new methodologies or exploring new data sources (or both). Where we do so, we will include statements on the nature of those developments, including plans for the future (as per the Office for Statistics Regulation guidance on producing official statistics in development).
Value
Be relevant
As described in our public involvement and engagement strategy, we continually seek to improve our understanding of our users and their needs, so that we can improve the relevance of our statistics wherever practical and appropriate to do so. Feedback from users is encouraged as part of every release.
We publish releases in a manner that aims to engage with the greatest possible number of relevant users. See our publication and dissemination policy for official statistics for more detail.
Statistics production staff are encouraged to develop themselves and explore opportunities for innovation, to improve production processes and published products in a way that stays high quality and relevant over time.
Be clear
During production of all our statistics, attention is given to the clarity and accessibility of text, tables and charts, according to relevant accessibility guidelines (such as those provided by the Government Analysis Function), enabling access to as wide a range of potential users as a possible. See our release practice policy for official statistics for more information.
As per our public involvement and engagement strategy, we will give advance notice of any major changes to releases, giving users the opportunity to comment on proposals before they are implemented.
Be accessible
Our statistics are published openly to all on our GOV.UK site.
As described above, we aim to produce statistics that are clear and accessible to as wide a range of relevant users as possible. All our statistics are accompanied by an explanation of trends and necessary background information, including links to related reports.
As per our release practice policy for official statistics, we continue to make past publications available on our website (all of which can be accessed via our Statistics at Ofqual site), unless there have been good reasons to withdraw them.
As part of our statistics releases, we publish aggregated data tables to allow for re-use. We also grant access to some granular data to accredited researchers through our GRADE data sharing project.