Roles and responsibilities

This section sets out the roles and responsibilities for those who play a pivotal role in ensuring that organisations adhere to these standards. The section is not intended to be exhaustive; others will have a role to play beyond those listed below.

Analysts

Analysts, including statisticians, social and operational researchers and economists, have a key role to play by working closely with colleagues from other professions to provide guidance on how statistics, data and wider analysis can and cannot be used; fact checking outputs such as press releases and briefings which use analysis; and proactively monitoring how their statistics, data and analysis are used in the public domain, escalating issues where required.

Heads of Professions for Statistics, Chief Statisticians and Lead Officials

These individuals have a responsibility to ensure that processes and support are in place to implement the standards. Where issues arise, these individuals are accountable for coordinating remedial actions, such as publishing ad hoc releases and implementing process improvements.

Directors of Analysis and Communication and Permanent Secretaries

As senior leaders, these individuals play an important role in setting the expectation of these standards being used as the default approach for communicating statistics, data and wider analysis in the public domain. Senior leaders should ensure that processes are in place across the organisation and encourage a transparent culture.

Communication professionals

Communication professionals play a unique role in translating numbers to stories and have considerable influence over how statistics, data and wider analysis are communicated in the public domain. As such, communication professionals play a vital role in ensuring adherence to the standards. This could be by ensuring that statisticians or analysts are included in the sign off process for communications, citing sources in written communications and ensuring that key information on context and limitations is provided, for example through notes for editors.

Policy professionals

Policy professionals are one of the most important users of statistics, data and wider analysis across government, making decisions about how the government will operate. When communicating policy decisions, proposals or evaluations to the public, for example in impact assessments or white papers, policy professionals should ensure that they use the most up-to-date official statistics where possible and that they do not include internal analysis unless this is released in advance of, or at the same time as, the policy document.

Special Advisers and Ministerial Private Offices

These individuals play a unique role in briefing Ministers for their public communications, often acting as a bridge between ministers and the rest of the department. This means that they play a vital role in ensuring that what the minister communicates publicly is based on the most recent published statistics and in a way that supports understanding.

Ministers

Ministers should adhere to these standards in all their public communications and set the expectation that the standards are followed within their departments. Ministers should respect statistical independence and not interfere with the orderly release of statistics, data and wider analysis by communicating them in the public domain before they have been published. Ministers should be aware that the Ministerial Codes for the UK Government, Welsh Government and Scottish Government require that ministers must be mindful of the Code of Practice for Statistics. Ministerial Guidance for Northern Ireland also requires ministers to follow good practice in relation to the Code of Practice for Statistics.