DTI - Code of Practice Compliance Statement

NATIONAL STATISTICS CODE OF PRACTICE - PROTOCOL ON RELEASE PRACTICES
COMPLIANCE STATEMENT BY the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Background
1.	The Release Practices Protocol requires each Department/Administration to publish and maintain a statement describing how it applies the standards set out in the Protocol to each of its releases.
2.	This statement sets out the position in Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Application of protocol to National Statistics produces by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
3.	Most of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s statistical outputs are National Statistics.
4.	Unless otherwise indicated below the Release Practice Protocol will apply in full to National Statistics releases.
Accessibility: Number and types of releases.
5.	In the current calendar year the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform expects to produce about 75 statistics releases. There are currently 4 monthly releases, 4 quarterly releases, 5 annual releases and one bi-annual publication.
6.	All statistical outputs are released free of charge on the internet where the extensive information is made available to be downloaded. Some publications, mainly quarterly and annual are also available in hard copy. A few are published by TSO and are charged for and some are available on subscription.
Pre-announcement
7.	Our aim is for all the release dates for all the Department’s regular National statistics outputs to be pre-announced in ONS Updates http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/updates.pdf.
8.	In general there are established timetables for the preparation of all regular releases and publication dates are given in advance. Exact dates are normally provided on a 12 month rolling programme or a soon in advance as is practicable.
Timing of Releases
9.	Each hard copy publication is announced by means of a Statistical Release from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Press Office, issued at 9:30 during a normal working day.
Format of releases
10.	The Head of Profession for Statistics maintains responsibility for the content and format of all statistical outputs (in consultation with the National Statistician as necessary).
11.	All data are released on the internet. Internet only releases are in the form of excel spreadsheets (for energy statistics) and comprise main tables providing last three months data, highlights sheets covering a summary analysis of the data, and additional sheets providing back data.
12.	Quarterly and Annual releases will normally be in the form of a standard statistical bulletin – a booklet giving a number of tables and commentary. This will normally be accompanied by a Statistical Release – a short summary of the key results, intended primarily to assist the media in reporting on the results. Any statement about policy by the Minister is issued separately from the statistical release.
Pre-release access to statistics
13.	The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform maintains a record, available for public scrutiny, of all those who have pre-release access and the purpose of that access. Any such access is in line with the protocol. This includes those with access for management, briefing, and/or quality assurance purposes. The list of people who have pre-release access is available here.
Availability of detailed results
14.	The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's statistical publications cover a very wide range of information. To encourage fullest use of source data, there are a variety of arrangements in place for making additional and more detailed results available on request, subject to restrictions of confidentiality and data quality. These are described in relevant outputs and also on National Statistics Online.
Updating procedure
15.	The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform undertakes to ensure that these notes on release arrangements and complementary information on Departmental and National Statistics websites are regularly updated.