Standard ten of the Standards for Official Statistics in the Code of Practice for Statistics emphasises the importance of equality of access at the time of release.
The Standard requires producers to decide not just what but how information is released, to enable further use. It emphasises the importance of considering the needs of a range of users in designing and preparing statistical outputs and meeting accessibility legislative requirements.
The Standard promotes data sharing and linkage. It also underscores that published information should continue to be available.
The Standard
10. Producers must ensure statistics are accessible and freely available to all – so that the public can have confidence that there is equal access to official statistics and the value of data are maximised
10.1 Provide free and equal access to regular and ad hoc published statistics
10.2 Make sure statistics, data and related guidance are easily accessible. Provide other relevant information, such as metadata and coding where appropriate.
10.3 Account for the needs of disabled people, using accessible communication formats and means which should work with commonly used assistive technologies and be in line with accessibility legislation
10.4 Provide data at the greatest level of detail that is practical to support use. Publish useful supplementary analyses, and statistics and data from commonly asked queries
10.5 Support the reuse of data and statistics, preventing barriers to use where possible. Ensure statistics are reproducible. Support data and statistics to be shared, accessed and linked, using common data standards with associated metadata
10.6 Be transparent about any supplementary statistical services that you provide and, where you decide to charge, publish your pricing policy
10.7 Ensure that statistics continue to be publicly available such as through web or data archiving
Questions to consider
1. Equal access
Do you provide equal access to ad hoc official statistics, as well as your regular statistical publications? How often are you producing ad hoc releases? Is there a need to change the regular publications to address the issues that arise? Are you clear about when and how to release ad hoc releases to meet the public interest matter?
2. Accessibility needs
How have you ensured and tested that the needs of users with disabilities are catered for? How do you ensure users with differing technical experience can access and use the information? What processes do you have in place to check that your outputs meet accessibility legislation?
3. Granularity
Have you ensured that the data are presented at the level of detail needed? Have you considered the degree of geographic disaggregation and the key variables needed by users?
4. FAIR
How are you ensuring your statistics and data are FAIR: findable, accessible, inter-operable, and reusable? What data standards are you working to?
5. Supporting sharing
Do you enable and support data sharing and linkage with users outside your organisation? Where appropriate, how do you promote sharing and linkage of your data?
Related guidance
Office for Statistics Regulation:
- Dashboards
- Engaging the audience – exploring statistics beyond the pdf
- Guidance for Models: Trustworthiness, Quality and Value
- Building confidence in the handling and use of data
- Unlocking the value of data through onward sharing
Government Statistical Service (GSS):
- Accessibility legislation: what you need to know
- Data visualisation: charts
- Data visualisation: colours
- Data visualisation: dashboards
- Data visualisation e-learning
- Releasing statistics in spreadsheets
- Resources to use with our releasing statistics in spreadsheets guidance
- Making analytical publications accessible
- Accessible charts: a checklist of the basics
- Using symbols and shorthand
- Best practice for automated spreadsheets in R: Creating Accessible Spreadsheets with aftables
Central Digital and Data Office (now part of the Government Digital Service):
- Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies
- Meet the requirements of equality and accessibility regulations
- Make your website or app accessible and publish an accessibility statement
- Guidance and tools for digital accessibility
- Publishing accessible documents
- Data Sharing Governance Framework
- Metadata standards for sharing and publishing data
- Manage your data for access and reuse
- Make essential shared data assets available across government
Good practice examples
- Office for National Statistics: Explore local statistics
Blogs:
- OSR: From Trend to Tool: Elevating Dashboards with Trustworthiness, Quality and Value
- OSR: Data sharing and linkage for the public good: breaking down barriers
- OSR: Understanding rough sleeping during a pandemic
- OSR: There’s more to statistical communication than avoiding truncated axes…
Case studies:
- Government Statistical Service: Improving the discoverability of UK official statistics
- HM Land Registry: Increasing the value of data to users by enhancing accessibility
- NISRA: Adding value to Northern Ireland tourism statistics
- Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID): Turning knowledge into action