Last updated: Thursday 24 March 2022
We want to make sure that statistics are equally accessible to all and as useful as possible to the people who use them. The Code of Practice for Statistics states that statistics should be released at 9.30am (see Practice T3.6). During the pandemic, we granted exemptions to allow the release of key economic statistics at 7am, as well as to some COVID-19 related statistics to be released as soon as prepared and quality assured, with release times of noon and 2pm.
Between September and December 2021, we undertook a consultation into the 9.30am release time practice. We have now completed our review and published our findings.
The UK Statistics Authority has approved the amendment to the Code of Practice for Statistics to enable alternative release times to be used, when granted by the Director General for Regulation.
The standard release time for all official statistics remains as 9.30am. An alternative time can be requested where the head of profession for statistics believes that it enables the statistics to better serve the public good. The alternative standard time is to be used consistently by the producer for those statistics and should be announced in advance.
Read further details about the alternative release times policy. The Code changes will come into force on 5 May 2022.