Dear colleague,

The refreshed Code of Practice for Statistics: update on OSR’s regulatory approach

In my letter of October last year, I set out the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)’s plans for publishing the third edition of the Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) and our intention to regulate against it from its release. We also published transition guidance setting out what the changes meant for your organisation. Now, around six months on, I want to provide an update on how OSR is using Code 3.0 in its regulatory work and what we expect of you and your organisations as Code 3.0 beds in.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for the way you and your teams have engaged with Code 3.0 since its launch. There is strong commitment across the statistical system to understand the changes introduced in Code 3.0 and to embed them into existing practices. We are very grateful for the leadership that Heads of Profession for Statistics, Chief Statisticians and lead statisticians have shown during this transition period.

How OSR is applying Code 3.0

Code 3.0 is an evolution rather than a radical overhaul: Trustworthiness, Quality and Value remain at its heart. The refreshed structure and new standards are designed to better reflect modern statistical practice and the wider public use of statistics, data and analysis.

Since its launch, all new OSR regulatory work has been based on Code 3.0. Assessments for accreditation and compliance reviews now evaluate statistics against the ten standards set out in the Standards for Official Statistics, and we use the Standards for the Public Use of Statistics, Data and Wider Analysis to support our casework judgements.

As we regulate against Code 3.0, our emphasis is on supporting the transition. We recognise that embedding the new standards for existing and new statistics will take time. In practice, this means that:

• We expect clear, time-bound plans to implement Code 3.0 for existing statistics.
• We expect new and updated statistics to comply with Code 3.0 from the start.
• We are taking account of organisational context – including scale, risk and maturity – when engaging with producers and making regulatory judgements.

As Code 3.0 becomes more established, we will increasingly expect the new standards to be reflected consistently in practice across all producers of official statistics. Where we identify that practice does not achieve these standards, we will raise concerns with producers and will include a requirement about compliance with Code 3.0 in published regulatory work.

Actions for producers of official statistics

To demonstrate statistical leadership, organisations must consider their ways of working and be open and transparent about these. Code 3.0 therefore requires producers to publish several organisational policy documents and statements relating to statistics production.

Our transition guidance set out our expectation that producers review their current practices and publish any required materials within six months of Code 3.0’s launch. Many of these documents, or the content for them, will already exist. We expect producers to review this information and bring it together in a clear and accessible way for users, filling in any gaps, or setting out plans to do so with clear timeframes. The required policies and statements relating to official statistics production are listed in full on the Code website, alongside examples of good practice.

Many of you support arms-length bodies (ALBs) linked to your organisations. ALBs may wish to consider their sponsor organisation’s policies and adapt or use them as applicable. If an ALB’s practices follow the sponsor organisation’s approach, it may be appropriate for the ALB to adopt its policy, explaining this decision to users and clearly sign-posting to the relevant document. Where practices differ between ALBs and their sponsor organisations, they should publish separate policy documents to make this clear.

We expect each organisation to publish its own statement of compliance. These statements should reflect detail of organisational practices, which will differ depending on circumstances. For ALBs with small statistical functions, a statement of compliance may be quite brief, complementing a more-comprehensive statement by its sponsor organisation.

Self-evaluation

Producers of official statistics should consider existing practices to identify areas of strength which already comply with Code 3.0 and any areas that require development to meet its standards. We encourage you to make use of OSR’s self-evaluation tool to understand how well your statistics meet the standards in the refreshed Code. While the tool is primarily designed for teams producing official statistics, it can be used by anyone producing data, statistics or other analysis to support confidence in their numbers. OSR is running a webinar and developing a self-evaluation learning pack to support use of the tool across the Government Statistical Service.

I would like to thank you again for your continued engagement and leadership. If you have any questions for my team, please do contact them at regulation@statistics.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Humpherson
Director General for OSR