Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness means that the statistics and other numerical information are produced free from vested interest, based on the best professional judgement of statisticians and other analysts.

Trustworthiness is a product of the people, systems and processes within organisations that enable and support the production of statistics and other numerical information.

Findings

The people, systems, and processes within ONS that enable and support the production of these statistics and data are worthy of trust. Analysts are well-managed and impartial and skilled in what they do.

ONS follows all statutory obligations and internationally endorsed guidelines governing the collection of data, confidentiality, and release. ONS issues all statistical reports separately from any other statement or comment about the figures and ensures that no statements or comments – based on prior knowledge – are issued to the press or published ahead of the publication of the statistics.

ONS is among a relatively small group of National Statistical Institutes issuing press releases announcing the publication of productivity data. ONS sends press releases to both the general and specialised print media as well as to general and specialised radio and general and specialised TV broadcast media. ONS also uses Twitter to inform the public about the publication of new productivity data.

Release dates for ONS’s statistical releases are pre-announced a year in advance on the ONS website. ONS limits access to the statistics in their final form to those involved in the production of the statistics and the preparation of the release, and for quality assurance and operational purposes.