Working in line with the Code

“Everyone that works in organisations producing official statistics should handle and use statistics and data with honesty and integrity, guided by established principles of appropriate behaviour in public life”

Practice T1.1 of the Code of Practice

Organisations that produce official statistics should commit to the standards of the Code. The Code applies to everyone working in these organisations.

You can protect the reputation of your organisation by working in line with the Code of Practice. By following the Code, your organisation will demonstrate:

• its trustworthiness through commitments to clear, orderly publication of statistics
• the quality of its outputs
• the value of the insight it provides

The Code will therefore allow your organisation to publish and communicate its statistics in a way that inspires public confidence. The public value of statistics is at the heart of this Code.

You should

• Be ethical and honest in using any data
• Consult professional analysts to assure the appropriate use of evidence
• Use firm evidence that measures what is needed
• Present information accurately, clearly and impartially

But you should not

• Share unpublished data and statistics without authorised pre-release access
• Selectively quote favourable data
• Use other people’s data without checking their reliability first

Further help

If you are unclear about any aspect of using data and statistics:

• Contact your Head of Profession for Statistics
• If you cannot reach them or a deputy, you can contact the National Statistician’s Good Practice Team

By complying with the Code, your organisation will show that:

• It is ethical and honest in using any data
• It has a strong culture of professional analysis
• It respects evidence
• It is open and transparent about the strengths and limitations of its statistics
• It communicates accurately, clearly and impartially
• It is committed to engaging publicly to understand user needs

These outcomes are underpinned by the three pillars of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value.

Compliance also shows that your organisation does not:

• Share unpublished data and statistics without authorised pre-release access
• Selectively quote favourable data
• Use other people’s data without checking the data’s reliability first

Application

The Code applies to everyone in your organisation that works with statistics. Your Head of Profession is the main source of professional advice on implementing the Code.  Trustworthiness, Quality and Value can support public confidence in other analytical outputs your department publishes. This website also includes information about voluntary application of the Code which provides a flexible way to implement the Code in an organisation.

The Office for Statistics Regulation assesses compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. To understand the tools we use to do this, please refer to Code of Practice for Statistics: Our regulatory approach.

As a communications professional, your role involves bringing together insights and ideas, to successfully implement and deliver impactful communications work (Communications professionals Framework).

Working in partnership with your department’s analysts, you can ensure that:

• Your organisation’s use of statistics does not distract from your key communications messages, or itself become the story
• You use statistics in an appropriate way that enhances your organisation’s reputation
• You comply with the Code

You don’t need to know the Code inside out. Your Head of Profession will advise you on specific principles and practices of the Code. You need to focus on the outcomes of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value:

“To ensure users can confidently make decisions about the statistics that are presented to them, using them without question to access what they require and need”.

A simple way to achieve these outcomes is to ask the right questions about the statistics within your communications messages.

Some ideas to help you ask the right questions

• Does it look right – is it an implausible number?
• If it’s unusual it could be wrong – what’s behind the surprise?
• What exactly are we measuring, and why?
• Where do the data come from – what is the backstory?
• Be curious about someone else’s data – could a little more research help me understand this better?
• How are the statistics calculated – is the source reputable and did they show their working?
• Only compare the comparable – watch out for changes in definitions and different ways to measure the same thing
• What led to what – is this really a causal relationship?
• Understand the assumptions – has anything been left out? What happens if they are wrong?
• How sure are you about this – numbers contain uncertainty – how precise are yours?
• Put things in context – what’s the historical trend?
• Presentation is key – good use of pictures and graphics help convey meaning and should never cause confusion or misrepresentation

If you are involved in the evaluation of policies read our guide on how the Code pillars can support the use, design, and impact of evaluation.

Organisations that produce official statistics should commit to the standards of the Code. The Code applies to those directly working in official statistics. There are other roles in the government that work with data but are not statisticians such as Operational and Social Researchers, Economists and other specialist analysts. Often this work feeds into a statistical bulletin or is used for policy and decision-making.

For this audience, the Guide to the Voluntary Application of the Code (VA Guide)– a high level summary of the Code – was developed to help you ensure the Trustworthiness, Quality and Value of your numerical information.

The VA Guide does not supersede other professions’ standards but instead complements them.