Guidance

Official statistics release practice policy

Updated 1 April 2026

Summary

This policy sets out the commitments of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to the appropriate release of official statistics.

We pre-announce our official statistics releases at least four weeks in advance where possible.

We publish official statistics at the standard time of 9:30am on the release day, except in cases where we have agreed an alternative release time with the Office for Statistics Regulation.

We use pre-release access arrangements to maximise the value of the statistics to the public.

We govern pre-release access arrangements with strict eligibility criteria and conditions of pre-release access.

Breaches of conditions of pre-release access must be reported to the Head of Profession for statistics and, in serious cases, the Director General for Regulation at the Office for Statistics Regulation.

We may issue scheduled revisions or unscheduled corrections to our official statistics for reasons such as amending errors or incorporating new methodology.

We accompany all UKHSA official statistics releases with the email address of the producer team and they may be contacted for further information on the data.

Policy statement

This policy sets out UKHSA’s approach to the orderly release of official statistics, such as pre-release access and revisions and corrections.

The purpose of this document is to clearly set out our commitments to the appropriate release of official statistics, including the legislation and frameworks within which we operate.

This policy applies to all UKHSA employees and third-party staff (e.g. consultants, contractors, temporary employees) who contribute to the production of our official statistics products – hereafter referred to as producers of official statistics.

You can find a full list of our official statistics products on GOV.UK. Any UKHSA analytical products not on this list are not in scope of this policy, though we do encourage application of these principles across a broader range of products.

Terminology

The key words ‘must’, ‘must not’, ‘should’ and ‘should not’ are interpreted as follows:

• must: indicates a mandatory requirement of this policy
• must not: indicates an absolute prohibition
• should: indicates a recommendation subject to context
• should not: indicates a discouraged practice unless justified

Roles and responsibilities

Producers of UKHSA official statistics are responsible for handling official statistics in accordance with this policy.

The Head of Profession for statistics is responsible for:

• approving pre-release access lists and arrangements for official statistics publications
• considering exceptional circumstances in which extended access may be required and, where this is granted, publishing reasons for the extended access and informing the UK Statistics Authority’s Chief Executive and the Office for Statistics Regulation’s Director General for Regulation
• ensuring compliance with this policy within UKHSA
• handling breaches of this policy, further detailed in Section 8 below
• in the event of a serious breach, notifying the UK Statistics Authority’s Chief Executive and the Office for Statistics Regulation’s Director General for Regulation, taking action to prevent a recurrence, and providing the UK Statistics Authority with a written explanation.
• deciding the content, format, and timing of releases containing substantial revisions

Recipients of pre-release access official statistics are responsible for handling official statistics in accordance with the terms they agree to upon approval.

Pre-announcement and timely release

In compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, all UKHSA official statistics are pre-announced in our release calendar, at least four weeks ahead wherever possible.

We publish at a standard time on the given date. This will usually be 9:30am, but the following publications have an alternative standard release time of 2pm, as agreed in correspondence with the Office for Statistics Regulation:

• Weekly all-cause mortality surveillance reports
• Seasonal flu vaccine uptake statistics
• National influenza and COVID-19 surveillance reports

Pre-release access

The pre-release access arrangements for UKHSA’s official statistics products are conducted in accordance with the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008 made under Section 11 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Purpose and principle of pre-release access

This policy sets out the arrangements in UKHSA for giving ministers and officials pre-release access to statistics in their final form prior to publication.

These arrangements are designed to ensure that such access is justified, limited, controlled, publicised, and complies with statutory requirements. Their purpose is to maintain public confidence in the integrity of statistics while allowing ministers to account immediately for the implications of statistics covering policy areas for which they are democratically responsible.

UKHSA operates under the general principle that pre-release access to statistics in their final form should be:

Limited to the minimum number of persons deemed necessary to allow the minister or accountable person, such as our Chief Executive, to either:

• provide responses to questions, or make statements about those statistics at, or shortly after their time of publication
• take action before, at, or shortly after the time of publication

Allowed only in circumstances where the public benefit likely to result from such access outweighs the detriment to public trust in official statistics likely to result from so doing

Exclusions

Pre-release access arrangements do not apply to ministers’ and officials’ access to the organisation’s own administrative or management data, even where those data subsequently form the basis for published statistics.

Pre-release arrangements, as defined in this policy, are not necessary for:

• those staff intimately engaged in the process of producing and disseminating the statistics in question (including those responsible for overseeing this process)
• those persons requested to quality assure the statistics before their public release
• circumstances covered by operational access (see 6.7) or by a specific data sharing agreement in place to meet our obligations for contributing to relevant health action plans and procedures

Operational access

Operational access to our official statistics is given, with approval from the Head of Profession for statistics and only in exceptional circumstances in which there is compelling public health justification, to enable operational decisions to be made in a timely manner and maximise the value of the statistics in improving public health outcomes. Operational purposes include:

For the purposes of developing communications and public messaging which should be aligned with the publication, including videos of epidemiologists explaining the statistics. Once statistics are published, they are open to interpretation by journalists, partners and the public, and therefore timely UKHSA communications are often an important way to provide context and interpret the findings for users.

To inform the development of public health strategies which are predicated on the data.

To inform operational decision-making and to provide decision-making committees, such as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, with the real-time information to inform timely decision making.

Operational purposes are carefully managed and do not include sharing with Ministers/Special Advisers to prepare ministerial statements or to prepare ministerial briefing before the pre-release access period.

All access to official statistics prior to release is logged by the statistics production teams, including operational access.

Conditions of pre-release access

Recipients of pre-release access must meet the eligibility criteria set out in Appendix A below. Recipients may have administrative staff with access to their mailbox, however such staff may not read or engage with pre-release official statistics received by this mailbox unless they have been approved for this access as well.

Pre-release access arrangements are limited to statistics which meet the eligibility criteria set out in Appendix B below, and which are in their final form prior to being published for the first time.

Pre-release access arrangements and lists must be agreed in advance with UKHSA’s Head of Profession for statistics.

Recipients must agree to the following conditions of access in advance of receipt of the official statistics:

• those persons who are given access to UKHSA’s official statistics ahead of their release must keep the statistics secure and under embargo, and they must avoid:
• disclosing the statistics or any part of a publication containing those statistics to any person not listed as a pre-release recipient
• providing any indication of the size or direction of any trend revealed by the statistics, including general indicators such as ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable’
• using such access for personal gain, or taking any action for political advantage
• exploiting such access to change or compromise the content, presentation, or timing of publication of official statistics

Period of access

In line with the legislation, pre-release access to the organisation’s official statistics is restricted to a maximum of 24 hours before their public release on the following day.

Documentation and publication

In the interests of openness and transparency, publication of an official statistic will also be accompanied by a pre-release access list (consisting of job titles and departmental affiliations) and the producers of the official statistics will record the reasons for giving advance access to each listed recipient.

Special circumstances

In exceptional circumstances only, and in accordance with the legislation, the Head of Profession may grant pre-release access in excess of 24 hours to a limited number of recipients. They will only do this if, in their opinion, the public benefit outweighs the detriment to public trust which is likely to result from such extended access.

When this happens, UKHSA’s Head of Profession for statistics will:

• publish their reasons for granting extended access
• inform the UK Statistics Authority’s Chief Executive (the National Statistician) and the Office for Statistics Regulation’s Director General for Regulation

Non-compliance with the pre-release access policy

The Head of Profession for statistics is responsible for ensuring compliance with this policy within UKHSA and has discretion over how they respond to breaches or non-compliance. There is a range of possible responses, and it is for the Head of Profession for statistics to decide the most appropriate course of action in the circumstances.

If the breach was minor in nature and resulted in no damage to the integrity of the official statistics involved, they may choose to deal with the matter informally through internal discussion. In seeking to avoid any breach being repeated, the Head of Profession for statistics may decide, for example to remove pre-release access from an individual.

In the event of a serious breach, the Head of Profession for statistics will:

• notify the UK Statistics Authority’s Chief Executive (the National Statistician) and the Office for Statistics Regulation’s Director General for Regulation
• take action to prevent a recurrence
• provide the UK Statistics Authority with a written explanation

In the event of a serious breach, the National Statistician may decide to conduct an inquiry, the results of which will be published on the UK Statistics Authority’s website.

In addition, the UK Statistics Authority can challenge an organisation where it considers that pre-release access is not justified or where an organisation is failing to comply with the legislation. It can also withdraw, or consider withdrawing, the ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ designation from the statistics in question if relevant. In the event of any such challenge or withdrawal, the Head of Profession for statistics will publish a response along with plans for achieving compliance.

We may issue revisions and corrections to official statistics when necessary, for reasons such as amending errors, incorporating a methodological change, or to apply a statistical disclosure method if a confidentiality risk has been identified.

Scheduled revisions

Scheduled revisions are planned amendments to published statistics to improve quality by either:

• incorporating additional data that were unavailable at the point of initial publication, or
• subjecting the publication to a ‘one-off’ methodological change. This may happen when, for example, a data source or methodology is improved and changes to historical numbers are significant enough that a revision of previously released tables is needed.

For scheduled revisions, we will: - pre-announce revisions to data where these are expected and scheduled. Typically, the publication of revised data would be timed to coincide with the latest release of related new data - summarise the key impact, nature, reason, and extent of revisions.

Unscheduled corrections

Unscheduled corrections are amendments made to published statistics in response to the identification of errors following their initial publication.

For unscheduled corrections we will:

Explain corrections to statistics at the earliest opportunity and in a way that provides most benefit to stakeholders.

Issue corrections in an orderly way, with the following timeframes in mind:

• for major unscheduled corrections, we aim to publish the corrections within two working days
• for minor unscheduled corrections, we aim to publish the corrections with the next release of the affected statistics

Summarise the key impact, nature, and extent of corrections.

Confine all final decisions on corrections to the UKHSA Head of Profession for statistics. The Head of Profession for statistics has discretion over how they respond to unscheduled corrections and the most appropriate course of action in the circumstances, taking into account whether the corrections would be considered minor or major.

Substantial revisions

In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to withdraw a publication while we make substantial revisions. The likelihood of substantial revisions is low due to the thorough quality assurance carried out prior to publication. However, in these circumstances we will:

• remove the statistics publication from the agency’s website
• replace the statistics publication with a statement giving a reason for the revision and a timetable for the replacement statistics
• pre-announce the replacement statistics

We may not carry out all of the actions described at the same time. For example, we may prioritise removing the statistics publication as soon as possible, even if the replacement figures are not yet ready.

Decisions on the content, format, and timing of releases that incorporate substantial revisions will be made by the Head of Profession for statistics.

Contacting producers of UKHSA official statistics

Alongside all UKHSA official statistics, an email address for the producing team is published. This may be used to ask any questions about the data or to request any further information.

In any event where the team producing the official statistics seem not to be contactable, users can email UKHSA’s Head of Profession for statistics at UKHSA_HOPSTATS@ukhsa.gov.uk.

Related policies

• Pre-release access to official statistics order 2008

• Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007

• Accessibility statement - GOV.UK Design System

Appendix A: Eligibility criteria for recipients of pre-release access

Categories of persons to whom the UKHSA Head of Profession for statistics may grant pre-release access to its statistics are as follows:

• have policy responsibility for a particular subject-matter covered by an official statistical release; who are accountable to Parliament and the electorate for their stewardship of that policy; and who may need to respond to questions about the official statistics, or take appropriate action, at the time of release of those official statistics
• senior officials (in UKHSA, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), or other departments) who have operational responsibility for a particular activity covered by an official statistics release
• other officials (in UKHSA, DHSC, or other departments) who have been assigned the specific responsibility to brief ministers or senior officials about the statistics in question (e.g. special advisers, policy advisers, analysts, clinicians, scientists, epidemiologists)
• press officers (in UKHSA, DHSC, or other departments) responsible for managing interface with the media with respect to the policy or statistics in question
• any immediate ancillary staff (in UKHSA, DHSC, or other departments

Appendix B: Eligibility criteria for statistics to have pre-release access arrangements

Categories of statistics to which the UKHSA Head of Profession for statistics may grant pre-release access are as follows:

• releases which incorporate statistics which are used to monitor or measure the performance of the public health system (either generally, or against formal outcome measures)
• releases which have the potential to impinge substantially on the formulation, implementation, or monitoring of health security policy
• releases which have the potential to inform, or impact on, decisions about the allocation of public funds
• releases which have, demonstrably and historically, had a high public profile (i.e. regularly generate coverage in the media) and on which ministers or senior officials (in UKHSA, DHSC, or other departments) with responsibility for the subject-matter might reasonably be expected to comment at the time of release
• releases which cover matters of wide public interest