Guidance

DfE statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

Updated 30 July 2026

Applies to England

Overview

The Code of Practice for Statistics provides producers of official statistics with details of the practices that must be committed to when producing and releasing official statistics. It ensures that statistics published by government serve the public and are trustworthy, valuable and of high quality.

Our compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics means that users can have confidence in the statistics produced by the Department for Education (DfE). Our statistics are regularly reviewed to ensure they support the needs of society for information.

This document sets out our commitment to comply with the 3 pillars of the Code of Practice for Statistics:

• trustworthiness
• quality
• value

Trustworthiness

Building confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data.

Show integrity

DfE commits to using, collecting, accessing and sharing data ethically and for the public good. We present data impartially, objectively and free from political and commercial influences.

Lead responsibly

Statistics producers at DfE lead responsibly and make impartial decisions about statistics under the direction and authority of the Head of Profession for Statistics, ensuring that the public can have confidence in the independent and objective nature of statistics.

Be transparent

We ensure that we comply with the Code of Practice requirements to pre-announce the release of regular official statistics in a 12-month release calendar and aim to publish releases at the standard time of 9:30am on a weekday.

Changes to pre-announced release dates or times are agreed with the Head of Profession for Statistics and announced promptly with explanation.

You can read more about our approach to transparent releases in our release policy.

We adhere to pre-release access requirements and publish pre-release access lists alongside all official statistics releases.

Contact details for statistics producers are provided in every statistical release, published in the Explore Education Statistics (EES) platform. Any revisions or corrections are captured on EES, providing the date alongside an amendment note describing the change.

Manage data responsibly

Our data management approach outlines our data management strategy.

We are committed to managing our data and statistics ethically, safely and securely, and to be open about how data will be used and protected, ensuring the public can be confident about providing their own information for official statistics.

Quality

Data and methods that produce assured statistics.

Prioritise quality

Quality management of official statistics sets out our commitment to support a culture of quality that promotes good practice and encourages learning and improvement. This ensures that the public is confident that we are continuously improving the quality standards of our published statistics.

Be rigorous

As outlined in our quality management approach, statistics producers at DfE use suitable data sources and sound methods so that the public are confident that our statistics are produced in robust ways and are fit for their intended purpose.

Be open about quality

Our statistics producers prominently explain the quality of the statistics we publish, including strengths, limitations and uncertainties, so that the public is confident in using our statistics to make decisions and take actions.

Each publication on EES has a clearly linked methodology document. Statistics that are being developed and tested are clearly labelled as ‘official statistics in development’ and include opportunities for users to provide feedback and be involved in the evaluation of the statistics.

Value

Statistics that support society’s need for information.

Be relevant

All official statistics published by DfE provide direct contact details to the producing team, ensuring that users can provide feedback on any release and are at the heart of decision-making about statistics. Where changes are being proposed, calls and routes for feedback are made prominent on release pages.

Publishers are encouraged to view their analytics data provided via the EES platform team to understand how their content, data files and pages are used. The service team works with statistics producers on search engine optimisation for releases to ensure that users see the most relevant results when searching for statistics online.

Be clear

All statistics producers at DfE work to present their statistics, data and information in a clear and straightforward way to support public understanding.

DfE’s annual statistics work programme gives advance notice of planned material changes to releases and their content, as well as changes in frequency.

Be accessible

DfE currently publishes all official statistics releases at the standard time of 9:30am on Thursdays to ensure clear expectations and equal access. Prior to publication, statistics are under strict pre-release conditions to ensure that the public can have confidence there is equality of access to our statistics.

All official statistics published by DfE are published on EES, built in line with WCAG 2.2 guidelines. All publications have direct links to their data, metadata and methodologies built into the release pages, as well as clear links to previous releases, and the accessibility of the service is kept under regular review.

Future development

DfE publishes a statistical work programme on an annual basis.

This outlines key developments to statistics published by DfE for the upcoming year. This work plan will be updated annually for each academic year. This includes high-level, departmental-wide priorities, as well as specific potential changes to existing official statistics.