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Guidance

DfE release practice policy for official statistics

Updated 30 July 2026

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2026

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-official-statistics-published-by-the-department-for-education/dfe-release-practice-policy-for-official-statistics

Purpose

This policy sets out how the Department for Education (DfE) plans, produces and publishes official statistics, ensuring they are released in an orderly, transparent and timely way, in line with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.

Scope

DfE publishes a wide range of statistics in the following formats:

This policy applies to all official statistics and accredited official statistics produced by DfE.

Principles

Our approach to releasing statistics is based on the following principles:

Professional independence

Statistical decisions are made by statisticians, free from political or policy influence.

Transparency

Release dates, changes and access arrangements are openly published.

Orderliness

Statistics are released in a planned and consistent way to avoid perceptions of manipulation.

Equality of access

Statistics are made available to all users in a timely way.

Public value

Outputs are accessible, clearly explained and meet user needs.

Our commitment

As part of our commitment to transparency and public accountability, we will:

  • publish all of DfE’s statistical outputs on the internet free of charge
  • publish all official statistics in line with the principles outlined in the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics (see also our statement of compliance with the Code of Practice)
  • maintain a full list of upcoming official statistics and their proposed publication dates in our statistics release calendar on EES
  • schedule publication dates in a timely manner for as soon as practical after the source data becomes available
  • confirm publication dates at least 4 weeks prior to publication and subsequently maintain transparency on the reasons for any changes to those dates
  • have all new regular statistical publications formally approved by our Head of Profession for Statistics before they are made available to the public
  • before publication, strictly limit access to only those directly involved in the production or quality assurance of the statistical releases (to minimise risks of external interference, for instance giving production access for people from policy to make sure any explanation around legislation or definitions are right – which goes beyond the actual numbers), or to those granted up to 24 hours pre-release access as permitted by legislation (enabling them to prepare responses to immediate questions that may arise from the release)
  • ensure that ministers, policy and communication colleagues do not influence the content, conclusions or timing of statistical releases
  • publish all our statistical publications on EES at 9:30am on a weekday unless otherwise agreed in exceptional circumstances
  • focus on presenting text, tables and charts in an accessible manner, enabling access to as wide a range of needs as possible, according to relevant accessibility guidelines (such as those provided by the Government Analysis Function)
  • be transparent on known caveats, limitations and sources of uncertainty in the source data and methodologies used for analysis
  • follow our revisions and corrections policy for official statistics, which describes how we will update publications for both scheduled revisions and unscheduled corrections
  • include contact details in all our releases, as well as clearly signposted opportunities for users to provide feedback that will help us improve our releases with user needs in mind
  • continue to make past publications available on EES

Compliance and review

This policy demonstrates DfE’s commitment to the Code of Practice for Statistics and will be reviewed periodically to ensure it remains up to date with best practice, legislation and guidance.

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