Suspension of NS designation
We have well-established procedures for reviewing existing NS designations and suspending them for a period of time where appropriate. This would usually be because of a temporary drop in quality that resulted in statistics that were not sufficiently good for the purposes for which they were intended. We would expect to restore the NS designation once quality was shown to have returned to an appropriate level. In considering suspension, we encourage producer teams to approach OSR as soon as they have concerns so that suspensions can be made in an orderly and supportive way, with no sense of criticism whatsoever of the producer body. More detail is available in OSR’s guidance, which includes the following.
Designation as National Statistics can be suspended when:
- The non-compliance with the Code of Practice is isolated – where it is notable but limited in scope, a suspension is more appropriate than de-designation.
- Corrective action can be delivered in a timely way – a suspension will be appropriate when the producer expects to correct the problem within a defined, reasonable period of time.