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Status of official statistics

The term official statistics covers several categories of statistics produced by public bodies, which are:

• National Statistics – statistics that are officially recognised as compliant with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics
• statistics produced by non-Crown Bodies (that can be National Statistics)
• statistics that are not National Statistics produced by all other bodies – this is the status of our official statistics.

Where our data has the status of official statistic we make that clear so you can have confidence that the data has been gathered following common standards followed by all UK organisations that produce official statistics. We aim to ensure that the statistics we provide:

• meet the needs of users
• are produced, managed and published to high standards
• are well explained.

In relation to official statistics, pre-release access is strictly limited. In general, the following are allowed to have pre-release access:

• a person who is accountable to the public for the formulation of policy or the delivery of a service to which the statistic has direct relevance
• a person who needs access to advise someone who is eligible for the above reason
• those who provide administrative support to the above.

More information about the status of statistics is on the UK Statistics Authority website (opens in a new tab) and the Office for National Statistics website (opens in a new tab).

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Last updated: 20 December 2023

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