Standard

Release practice policy

Updated 30 April 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

Ofsted’s 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 (the code). The code requires producers of statistics to publish a series of organisational policies and statements relating to official statistics production. This statement provides an overview of our release practices.

Standard 3 (be transparent) of the code sets out the requirements for the orderly release of official statistics.

In our commitment to transparency, we will:

• pre-announce the release of official statistics in a 12-month release calendar; we announce our statistics on GOV.UK’s research and statistics calendar
• give a specific release date and time for each official statistics release at least 4 weeks ahead of publication
• promptly change a pre-announced date if required, following discussion with the head of profession for statistics, and explain our reasons for doing so
• limit access before public release to those involved in the production of the statistics and the preparation of the output, and to policy and operational colleagues who are involved in quality assurance – we will maintain a list of those who have access to statistics before release
• act in line with the relevant pre-release access rules and principles set out in legislation when circulating official statistics in their final form
• release statistics on a timely basis, meeting the needs of users as far as possible, and as soon as the statistics are ready, under the guidance of the head of profession for statistics
• release statistics at the standard time of 9.30am on a weekday – we avoid publishing official statistics on a Monday to ensure there is no need to extend the 24-hour pre-release access window; we also try to avoid publishing official statistics on a Friday to ensure our statistical producers or press colleagues are working and available to respond to any questions if required on the day of or after each release
• advise on the appropriate use of statistics in policy and ministerial statements and provide links to source statistics in line with intelligent transparency
• make it easy for users to contact the producer team – each official statistics release will contain an email address for the team or statistician that has produced the release; see our public involvement and engagement strategy
• release revisions and corrections of errors transparently, and as soon as possible in line with our revisions and corrections policy
• make the status of the statistics clear in the release, for example whether statistics are accredited official statistics, official statistics or official statistics in development – if accreditation for official statistics has been removed, we will inform users and explain why
• ensure our releases remain publicly available – we do not delete past releases from our statistics pages; we have designed the pages to ensure the most recent releases are displayed prominently at the top of our pages and older releases in an annex at the bottom of each page

Pre-release access to official statistics

The Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order applies to all official statistics produced by Ofsted.

Pre-release access refers to privileged access to statistical releases in their final form, before they are available in the public domain. It does not refer to the access available to staff who:

• produce and publicise the statistics in question (including those responsible for overseeing this process)

• are asked to quality assure the statistics before their public release

Official statistics are:

• important for decisions across the country and internationally – for example, they provide information about government performance

• produced systematically

• relevant to the whole country

• publicly available

Accredited official statistics are a subset of official statistics. Accredited official statistics are official statistics that have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and confirmed to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the code. Accredited official statistics are called ‘national statistics’ in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

This statement sets out how we give officials access to official statistics before they are published. Access has to be justified, controlled, publicised and compliant with statutory rules. This maintains public confidence in the integrity of the statistics, and enables officials to explain the implications of the statistics as they are published.

The head of profession for statistics for Ofsted oversees these arrangements on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector.

Granting of pre-release access

Officials who need pre-release access to the statistical release are included in the pre-release access list. The list of officials is reviewed before the publication of every release of official statistics. Pre-release access to official statistics is limited to the minimum number of people necessary to allow officials to:

• respond to questions or make statements at the time of publication

• take action before or at the time of publication

Access is allowed only in circumstances where the public benefit is likely to outweigh the possible detriment to public trust in official statistics and individuals satisfy the requirements laid out in the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order.

We publish job titles and organisations of everyone who has been granted pre-release access, alongside the statistical releases. Individuals who are granted pre-release access include:

• senior officials who have operational responsibility for a particular activity covered by a release, and who are accountable for their stewardship of that activity to ministers and Parliament

• officials with ultimate responsibility for formulating, developing, maintaining, monitoring or implementing policy

• other government statisticians who need to consider coherence with their own departments’ data sets

• other officials who are responsible for briefing ministers or chief executives about the statistics in question, such as special advisers, policy advisers or analysts

• departmental press officers responsible for managing communications with the media about the policy or statistics in question (plus any immediate supporting staff)

We may grant pre-release access to supplementary data (such as publications released with our annual report) and releases that:

• include inspection and inspection outcome data

• include provider and places data

• cover matters of wide public interest, such as our research and blogs

Period of access

Pre-release access to our official statistics is restricted to a maximum of 24 hours before publication.

In exceptional circumstances, the head of profession for statistics, in consultation with others, may grant pre-release access for more than 24 hours before public release if, in their opinion, the public benefit outweighs the possible detriment to public trust.

When this happens, the head of profession for statistics will publish their reasons for granting extended access and will inform the UK Statistics Authority’s chief executive (the National Statistician) and the OSR.

Conditions of access

The people who are given pre-release access to the department’s official statistics must keep the statistics secure and under embargo until their release and they must abide by certain conditions of access. They must avoid:

• disclosing the statistics, or any part of a publication containing them, to anyone not listed as a pre-release recipient

• providing any indication of either absolute levels or trends revealed by the statistics

• using their access for personal gain or political advantage

• exploiting their access to change the content, presentation or timing of publication of official statistics

Special circumstances

The head of profession for statistics may allow access more than 24 hours before release to a limited number of people in a limited number of special circumstances. For example, access may be given to the compilers of complementary reports due to be published at the same time as, or shortly after, the statistics so they can incorporate the latest available figures – this access may be for longer than 24 hours.

Failure to meet conditions

If the principles set out here are not met, the head of profession for statistics will follow the guidance on reporting concerns under the Code of Practice for Statistics by:

• notifying the National Statistician and the OSR

• taking action to prevent a recurrence

• promptly responding to requests for additional information

The National Statistician may decide to conduct an inquiry on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority, with assistance from the OSR, and publish the results on their website.

Sanctions against non-compliance

Ofsted’s head of profession for statistics may withdraw, for a period of time, pre-release access from anyone judged to have breached the conditions.

A heavier sanction can be imposed by the UK Statistics Authority, which has a statutory duty to assess the extent to which any organisation’s accredited official statistics comply with the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008, and the duties set out in this statement.

The UK Statistics Authority can, for instance, challenge an organisation where it considers that pre-release access is not justified or where an organisation is failing to conform to these arrangements.

It can also withdraw, or threaten to withdraw, the designation from accredited official statistics. In the event of such a challenge or withdrawal, Ofsted’s head of profession for statistics will publish Ofsted’s response on GOV.UK along with plans for achieving compliance.