Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Statistician’s
Guidance:
Presentation and
Publication of
Official Statistics
Enquiries
For enquiries about the content of this publication:
Tel: 020 7014 2350
Email: james.denman@ons.gov.uk
Objectives 5
Accessibility 11
Pre-release access 12
Publication 14
Publication timetable 14
Releasing statistics 17
Published information to accompany statistics 23
Pricing 24
August 2009
Responsibility
Organisational policies
1 Plain Figures, Myra Chapman and Cathy Wykes (Stationery Office 1996, 2nd edition)
Pre-release access
Protocol 2, Practice 7: Subject to compliance with the rules
and principles on pre-release access set
out in legislation, limit access before
public release to those people essential
for production and publication, and
for quality assurance and operational
purposes. Publish records of those who
have access prior to release.
Protocol 2, Practice 8: Ensure that no indication of the
substance of a statistical report is made
public, or given to the media or any
other party not recorded as eligible for
access before publication. Report to
the National Statistician immediately
any accidental or wrongful release, and
investigate the circumstances.
3 For further guidance on this please refer to the National Statistician’s Guidance:
Confidentiality of Official Statistics.
4 In most cases, it will also be necessary to report the incident to the permanent secretary
responsible for the organisation.
5 www.statistics.gov.uk
7 The Scottish Government publishes a statistical news release to accompany all official
statistics. In the case of the Scottish Government, the information to be included in the
‘statistical release page’ (as referred to in paragraph 42) will be included in the statistical
news release and the statistical publication front page.
8 For further information please refer to the National Statistician’s Guidance: Quality,
Methods and Harmonisation, paragraphs 54 and 55.
Pricing
Principle 2, Practice 8: Release all regular statistical reports on
the internet without charge to the user.
Principle 2, Practice 9: For any supplementary statistical services
for which a charge is made, adopt
clear pricing policies that comply with
legislation and relevant policy.
9 For further information please refer to the National Statistician’s Guidance: Quality,
Methods and Harmonisation, paragraph 56.