The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) is refreshing its Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) to ensure that it continues to meet the evolving needs of the statistics system, setting the highest standards of ‘Trustworthiness, Quality and Value’, and that it is also useful for wider professional application.
The Code sets the standards for official statistics, but we are increasingly seeing it play an important role for wider organisations and professions that want to reassure their audiences about how they produce and use data, through Code-led initiatives like Voluntary Application and Intelligent Transparency.
We are seeking feedback on our proposals for a new edition of the Code via public consultation, which will run from 23 October 2024 until 14 February 2025.
Three things to know about the proposed changes to the Code of Practice:
- Everyone producing or using data and statistics can benefit from understanding and applying the core concepts of the Code: Trustworthiness, Quality and Value (TQV). The guiding principles from the Code will support anyone working with data and statistics to apply TQV with its easy-to-follow sets of dos and don’ts.
- The Code of Practice sets the standards that those producing official statistics must follow – the new Standards for Official Statistics provide ten action-orientated statements that describe the essential areas of statistical practice.
- The new Standards for Intelligent Transparency set out what anyone communicating statistics in public bodies needs to do to ensure an open, clear and accessible approach is taken when publishing and communicating data, statistics and wider analysis.
OSR would like to hear from a wide range of people, including those who work in organisations that publish statistics and those who make use of the statistics: anyone with an interest in ensuring that the Code supports data and statistics to serve the public good.
Ed Humpherson, Director General of Regulation said:
“In refreshing the Code, our aim is to ensure that the universality and content of the Code is clear to a wide range of audiences – producers of official statistics, other analysts within and beyond government, users of statistics and other stakeholders with an interest in statistics, as well as members of the public and OSR itself, as the statistics regulator.”
A new edition of the Code (3.0) could be available for use in summer 2025, with timings and content dependent on the responses we receive during the Code consultation.
Note to Editors
- The UK’s statistical system includes those who collect, produce, disseminate and regulate official statistics, alongside central bodies that set strategic direction.
- The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK and aims to enhance public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics produced by government. OSR regulates statistics by setting the standards official statistics must meet in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We ensure that producers of official statistics uphold these standards by conducting assessments against the Code. Those which meet the standards are given accredited official statistics status, indicating that they meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and value. We also report publicly on systemwide issues and on the way that statistics are being used, celebrating when the standards are upheld and challenging publicly when they are not.
- OSR is independent from government ministers and separate from producers of statistics, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS). OSR’s Director General, Ed Humpherson, reports directly to the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority Board, Sir Robert Chote. The Director General and OSR have wide discretion in highlighting good practice and reporting concerns with the production and use of statistics publicly. OSR’s work is overseen by the Board’s regulation committee (made up of non-executive directors, with no statistical producer in attendance). OSR’s budget is proposed by the Board’s regulation committee and endorsed by the Board.
For more information and updates on OSR’s Code development, please sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.
To contact OSR directly with a question on the Code of Practice or another area of our work, email: regulation.support@statistics.gov.uk